Captain Sir William Alexander Dargie (4 June 1912 – 26 July 2003) was a renowned Australian painter, known especially for his portrait paintings. He won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait artists on eight separate occasions; a record held since 1952. Dargie was an official Australian war artist during World War II and painted multiple portraits of Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia as well as the official portraits of two Prime Ministers of Australia and two Governors-General of Australia. Dargie painted in a conservative style and is now largely forgotten despite his substantial artistic achievements. Biography William Dargie was born in Footscray, Victoria, the first son of Andrew Dargie and Adelaide (née Sargent). His younger brother, Horrie Dargie, was a noted Australian musician and harmonicist. When he was young, he met important Australian artists such as Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts. During World War II, he served with the Australian Army in the Middle East, New Guinea, India and Burma, rising to the rank of Captain. He was digging a trench in Tobruk, Libya, when he was informed that he had won the Archibald Prize in 1942. More than 500 of his paintings, drawings and sketches are in the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. In December 1954, he was commissioned by Melbourne industrialist James P. Beveridge to paint Australia's official portrait of the Queen, who posed for him at Buckingham Palace. That was the first of two portraits he created of the Queen. The second, a replica of the first, was painted as "insurance" in case the first was lost in transit to Australia. The original hangs in Australia's Parliament House, while the replica is displayed in the National Museum of Australia. The "wattle painting", as it became known, was well received by the Australian public, and became one of the most recognisable and treasured examples of 20th-century Australian portraiture. Shortly after its completion, colour prints were made available and the work took on the status of official portrait. For many postwar immigrants, that portrait was their first encounter with an artwork by an Australian artist, because it was reproduced on Australian naturalisation papers from the mid-1950s. Under the terms of the 1954 Australian Citizenship Convention, a print of the work was generally present in local town halls, where many naturalisation ceremonies took place. Dargie painted the Duke of Edinburgh in 1956, as well as official