Banjo Patterson Research
Andrew Patterson
Andrew Barton Patterson; a poet, solicitor, journalist, war correspondent and soldier, was born at Narrambla near orange on the 17th of February 1864. Patterson was the eldest of seven children, under the guidance of his father who shared his own namesake and his mother Rose Isabella. When Andrew Patterson was seven, his family moved to illalong, it is in this area that Patterson developed his lifelong enthusiasm for horses and horsemanship, and in the future, the writing of his famous equestrian ballads.
From the age of 10 after transferring from a bush school at Binalong, Patterson attended the Sydney grammar school, where he achieved the junior Knox prize at the age of 16. Patterson failed the University of Sydney’s scholarship exam and as a result he was admitted as a solicitor in 1886 and formed a legal partnership with John Street for 10 years up until 1889. Due to his grandmothers influence Patterson began publishing verses in the Bulletin under the alias ‘the banjo’. By 1895 such ballads as 'Clancy of the Overflow', 'The Geebung Polo Club', ' The Man from Ironbark', and ’ How the Favourite Beat Us and Saltbush Bill' were so popular with readers that Angus & Robertson published the collection, The Man from Snowy River, and Other Verses, in October. In 1895 at the age of 31 Andrew Barton also composed his now famous ballad ‘Waltzing Matilda’ that would become one of Australia’s best known folk songs, and marked the declaration that Patterson was the second most popular poet in Australia.
Patterson travelled to South Africa in 1899, as a special war correspondent to the Sydney morning Herald during the Boer war and during the Boxer rebellion in 1901. For nine months Patterson was in the thick of the fighting and his graphic accounts of the fighting include the surrender of Bloemfontein, the capture of Pretoria and the relief of Kimberly. He wrote twelve ballads from his war experiences, the best known of which are 'Johnny Boer' and
Andrew Barton Patterson; a poet, solicitor, journalist, war correspondent and soldier, was born at Narrambla near orange on the 17th of February 1864. Patterson was the eldest of seven children, under the guidance of his father who shared his own namesake and his mother Rose Isabella. When Andrew Patterson was seven, his family moved to illalong, it is in this area that Patterson developed his lifelong enthusiasm for horses and horsemanship, and in the future, the writing of his famous equestrian ballads.
From the age of 10 after transferring from a bush school at Binalong, Patterson attended the Sydney grammar school, where he achieved the junior Knox prize at the age of 16. Patterson failed the University of Sydney’s scholarship exam and as a result he was admitted as a solicitor in 1886 and formed a legal partnership with John Street for 10 years up until 1889. Due to his grandmothers influence Patterson began publishing verses in the Bulletin under the alias ‘the banjo’. By 1895 such ballads as 'Clancy of the Overflow', 'The Geebung Polo Club', ' The Man from Ironbark', and ’ How the Favourite Beat Us and Saltbush Bill' were so popular with readers that Angus & Robertson published the collection, The Man from Snowy River, and Other Verses, in October. In 1895 at the age of 31 Andrew Barton also composed his now famous ballad ‘Waltzing Matilda’ that would become one of Australia’s best known folk songs, and marked the declaration that Patterson was the second most popular poet in Australia.
Patterson travelled to South Africa in 1899, as a special war correspondent to the Sydney morning Herald during the Boer war and during the Boxer rebellion in 1901. For nine months Patterson was in the thick of the fighting and his graphic accounts of the fighting include the surrender of Bloemfontein, the capture of Pretoria and the relief of Kimberly. He wrote twelve ballads from his war experiences, the best known of which are 'Johnny Boer' and