Maritime Services Board of NSW War Memorial, Museum of Contemporary Art

In 1952, the new Head Office of the Maritime Services Board of NSW (M.S.B.) in Circular Quay, Sydney was opened and the war memorial on the ground floor designed by Lyndon Dadswell was dedicated.

The memorial was attached to the marble wall in the foyer of the original M.S.B. main building entrance. It stood approximately 7 meters high and 6 meters wide. It was constructed of wrought aluminium and stands off the marble wall to form a shadow to act as a second image.

The memorial was sculpted by Lyndon Dadswell. In 1933 Lyndon won the Art Gallery of NSW Wynne Prize. He was also a Second World War veteran who joined the A.I.F. in 1940 and served with the 2nd Division 2/3rd Battalion in Greece, Libya and Syria. In September 1941, Lyndon was promoted to Lieutenant and the Federal Government commissioned him as the first Australian Sculptor to be an official war artist of the Second World War. The sculpture above the doorway, outside the main entrance to the original M.S.B. building, was carved by Lyndon in 1949 and commissioned by the M.S.B. before the building was completed in 1952. Inside the entrance to the building, Lyndon’s memorial highlighted the zones of active military service by Australian service personnel.

In 1989, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (M.C.A.) took possession of the building. The memorial had been a public war memorial where many remembrance services took place. It is now underneath a multi-panelled painting by Imants Tillers called Pure Beauty.

You can see evidence of the memorial at the M.C.A. at 140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney.