Some while ago I discovered an amazing war artist called Anthony Gross.
In 1942 he sailed 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 eight week voyage which are a fantastic record of daily life on board ship.Check out:
Anthony Gross, official war artist, and the Convoy series of drawings
and
Official war artist Anthony Gross
to read more about him.
More recently, I've discovered that Anthony Gross had a sister, Phyllis, who was also an artist.
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| 1940 |
After an eight year marriage to Richard Pearsall and subsequent divorce, Phyllis had to support herself and so she became a portrait painter.
This was in the 1930s.
While working as a portrait painter and trying to find her patrons' houses Phyllis Pearsall became increasingly frustrated at the lack of proper street maps of London.
So, she decided to do something about it.
In the course of one year she covered London's 23,000 streets on foot, mapping every section.
Aided by her father who was a successful publisher she set up her own company to publish her map of London.
The company was the Geographer's Trust which still publishes the London A-Z and that of every major British city to this day.
However, during WW2 Phyllis was not allowed to engage in any mapping work and she became an official war artist.
She was given permission to enter various establishments to record women in their uniformed and civilian occupations: the ATS, WRNS, WAAF, Land Army, nurses, workers in Ordnance factories and voluntary services.
In 1990 some of her drawings were published in a slim volume entitled Women at War.
Accompanying the drawings is some fascinating text in which Phyllis recalls what she saw and heard as she went from place to place.It's a wonderful book but is sadly now out of print.
I bought a second hand copy for 1p plus postage and packing from a charity shop operating as an Amazon associate.
There don't seem to be any more second hand copies available either on Amazon or in the Oxfam Bookshop on-line. There's certainly nothing available at Waterstones.
The reason I'm telling you this is because if you see a copy in your local charity shop, it would be well worth buying.
Anyone who has in interest in WW2 will find the accounts Phyllis Pearsall wrote about the lives of ordinary women during those years absolutely fascinating.
The drawings are remarkable too. I've copied a couple and it's clear that Phyllis was just as talented as her brother.
The book is filled with insights into the life of women during the war years. Each chapter includes a couple of drawings and some quotes from the women Phyllis met in each of the different workplaces.