Marcie Elizabeth 'Betty' Fairfax (1907–1995) was a leading figure in fashionable circles in Sydney in the 1920s and 1930s. The daughter of a barrister, David Wilson QC, Betty made headlines when she married media proprietor Warwick Fairfax in 1928. Their divorce in 1946, and Betty's subsequent remarriage to a French naval officer, Commandant Pierre Gilly, were the subject of heated gossip. During the Second World War, Betty ran Air Force House in Sydney, where a team of volunteers provided meals and accommodation for 2000 servicemen each week. She has been described as 'one of the great beauties of her generation' who combined flair with wit and kindness. As a prominent socialite and hostess, Betty was connected with the city's primary tastemakers of the inter-war years. She later lived in Tokyo, Paris and London with Gilly, before returning to Sydney in the late 1980s. Betty's two children from her marriage to Warwick Fairfax, Caroline and James, both became art collectors and remarkable patrons of heritage and the arts in Sydney.
During the 1920s, George Lambert's paintings dominated the Australian art scene. His elegant pencil drawing captures Betty at the age of about fourteen, and may have been drawn at her family home Yandooya in Bellevue Hill.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the Simpson family in memory of Caroline Simpson OAM 2008
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
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