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Official war artist Anthony Gross

Photo credit: Malindine, E G (Capt), War Office official photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
A couple of months ago I discovered some fantastic drawings by official war artist Antony Gross. They are a record of a voyage he made on a troop ship in 1942. (Read my earlier blogpost here for more information.)

I've been looking at the drawings again today and am really impressed by them. You can see all the drawings on the Wikicommons website as the Imperial War Museum has placed the series in the public domain. I think some of Gross' drawings enhance the comments my dad wrote in his diary.

Monday 25th October 1943

"Arrived at Casablanca about 10.00.
Stayed two hours while our escort destroyers re-fuelled.
Continued to sea.
Changed to tropical rig in afternoon – khaki shirt and shorts. Many comments at this from R.N. chaps as the Fleet Air Arm is the only branch of Navy allowed khaki in the tropics.

The nights are extremely beautiful. I stood in the bows for a long time tonight watching the sunset and the swarms of flying fish playing in the spray. Some of them are quite large and their mode of travel is to swim until they are moving very fast and then launch themselves with a flick of the tail and glide just above the water. A school of porpoises followed for quite a while."

I don't think these chaps are all Fleet Air Arm but the drawing highlights the contrast between the two colours. And how crowded the ships were.

By Gross, Anthony [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Sunday 31st October 1943

"Sighted the African coast early in the morning and at 10.10 dropped anchor in Freetown harbour.
The town looks very pretty with brightly coloured houses, the outstanding objects being a church and two wireless aerials. Behind the town to the left is the coastal range of hills.

Large numbers of canoes fill the harbour, some mere dug-outs but others quite decent boats."

I'm not certain these drawings are at Freetown in Sierra Leone but the landscape looks similar to photographs I've seen.

By Gross, Anthony (CBE) (RA) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Gross, Anthony (CBE) (RA) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons


Friday 16th March 1945

"Still at sea. However people can write poetry and extol the sea I don’t know. I hate the sight of it.

Am spending my time at present in reading. There are innumerable paper-backed books on board and I read on an average one a day. To-day it was "English Diaries 19th Century". I particularly liked the selections from Dorothy Wordsworth’s."

My dad wrote this comment when he was in transit via the Panama Canal to Australia. Although Gross was on a different journey I think this drawing really captures the isolation and tedium of a long voyage.

By Gross, Anthony [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

And are those really hens in this final drawing?

By Gross, Anthony [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety
The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II 
by N. Buckle & C. Murray