His other early love affair, which he shared with his younger brother and fellow artist Charles William Wyllie (1853–1923), was sailing.

[citation needed] In 1920 he painted a mural for the Royal Exchange, London Blocking of Zeebrugge Waterway, St George’s Day, 23rd April 1918.

Wyllie campaigned vigorously for the restoration of HMS Victory as a founder member of the Society for Nautical Research, and in 1930 his 42-foot (13 m) panorama of the Battle of Trafalgar was unveiled by King George V. The painting is seen by about 100,000 people every year where it still hangs in the Royal Naval Museum within the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth.

In a moving ceremony, reminiscent of Nelson's state funeral in 1806, his body was rowed up Portsmouth Harbour in a naval cutter past battleships with dipped colours and bugles calling and quaysides lined with dockyard workers.

[3] They were married in 1879, and between 1880 and 1904 they had nine children; Harold (1880–1973), Bill (1882–1916), Dick (b 1883), Eva[note 1] (1884–1912), Robert (1888–1914), Douglas (b&d 1894), an unnamed son (b&d 1898), Eric (b 1900) and Aileen (1903–1987).

"[6] Wyllie died on 6 April 1931 at 102 Fellows Road, Primrose Hill, London, and is buried at St Mary's church, within the grounds of Portchester Castle.