Freotopia > people > Cyril Bryan (1884-1940)
Cyril Bryan often wrote under the pen-name 'Cygnet'.
A GREAT intellect has been lost to Western Australia in the sudden death at Reno (Nevada) during a holiday trip to the United States, of Dr. Cyril Bryan.
Dr. Bryan was one of the most brilliant personalities Western Australia has produced.
He was outstanding, not in one sphere of life, but in many. He was a fine soldier, an unusually gifted doctor, a scholar, a philosopher and author, and, perhaps above all, a great humanitarian.
Born in Western Australia he aimed early in life to know the world, and became a traveller to many far-flung centres of human endeavor.
He was a soldier in campaigns dating from the Boer War to the Great War. He served in public life as a City councillor, while as a doctor he had established a reputation in Harley-street when sentiment called him back to the West.
As a writer he contributed many bright articles to the daily Press and also to "The Sunday Times," and as a historian his work will be of lasting value to Western Australia.
His acquaintances were widely spread and in every stratum of life, for the great soul of Cyril Bryan knew no limits of caste, class or creed. His deep understanding made him evedybody's confidant and everybody's friend. He tasted life in many phases and understood his fellow-men as few understand.
Battling against ill-health for years, his personality was always vivid and cheerful. He was the kind of man it did one good to meet and talk with. His very presence was an Inspiration. Among newspaper men particularly he established many deep friendships.
Cyril Bryan was not merely liked by his friends. He was loved and revered. All of us who knew him will feel that something went out of our lives when that great soul passed over the Infinite with which it somehow always seemed so much in tune.
Sleep well, Cyril!
-Vee-Cee.
Bryan, Cyril 1956, Swan River Booklets nos 1-12, Paterson Brokensha, Perth. First published Patersons, Perth, 1935.
Sunday Times, 21 January 1940: 18
See also articles by 'Cygnet' on: the Earl of Aberdeen, Queen Adelaide, Ned Bruce (and Ned's Land), Charles Fitzgerald, Lord Goderich, Mathew Hale, Edmund Henderson, Frederick Irwin, William Milligan, George Murray, James Outram, James Stirling, Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, Governor Weld, Queen Victoria, Barrack St, Mill St, Pier St, the Colonial Hospital, St Mary's Cathedral, HMS Sulphur.
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