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Showing posts from March, 2015

Anthony Gross, official war artist, and the Convoy series of drawings

I've recently discovered an amazing official war artist named Anthony Gross. In 1942 he was sent on a troop carrier, the m.v. Highland Monarch, from England to Egypt via Sierra Leone and the Indian Ocean. He made a series of drawings during the voyage, which took around eight weeks, which are a fantastic record of daily life on board. Some of Gross' drawings have provided me with real in-sights into my father's diary. For example, on Thursday 14 th October 1943 Norman recorded: "Transport arrived, picked us up and dumped us on the wharf alongside " S.S. Orbita " an armed merchant cruiser used as a troop carrier. Climbed the stairs (damned if I know the nautical name) and then, after finding ourselves on the top deck, tried to find our mess, which we were told was "just forrard". Eventually discovered it and found it to be a place about the size of a single tennis court where 360 of us were to eat and sleep for Heavens knows how