When I researched my book Under Fire – Black Britain in Wartime 1939-1945, I made notes about Black Britons who were subjects of artists during the Second World War, writes Southwark historian Stephen Bourne…
For example, the Royal Air Force Museum’s archive has many beautiful portraits of African and Caribbean servicemen and women by the portrait painter Hon. Mrs. Honor Earl.
These include Ulric Cross, the Trinidadian RAF navigator. Tate Britain has in its collection a magnificent painting called ‘Survivors from a Torpedoed Ship’ (1942) by Richard Eurich. Based on fact, it shows a Black sailor helping two white sailors to cling, half frozen, to an upturned lifeboat. Eventually they were picked up but the Black sailor, who is unnamed, regrettably died.
Eurich was a painter who was known for his panoramic seascapes. He was appointed Official War Artist from 1940-45. From 1949 to 1968, Eurich was employed as an art teacher at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts.
Norman Hepple was a portrait painter who, at the start of the war, joined the Auxiliary Fire Service which, in 1941, became the National Fire Service.
He served as a fire fighter during the London Blitz but continued his painting. Like Richard Eurich, he was also appointed Official War Artist and one of his finest achievements was a portrait of George A. Roberts. He was a Trinidadian who had served in the British Army during the First World War and then settled in Camberwell where he lived until he died in 1970.
It is likely that George’s First World War experiences on the battlefields of Europe, including the Somme, prepared him for the onslaught of the London Blitz.
When the Second World War began, George was too old for combat so he trained with the Auxiliary Fire Service. His base was New Cross Fire Station and in 1943 he was made a section leader.
As a brave fire fighter, he faced constant danger throughout the Blitz. He put out fires and saved lives while the bombs fell and exploded.
In addition to his fire service duties, George was responsible for organising the Discussion and Education Groups of the wartime NFS. He realised that fire officers had time on their hands between air-raids and the discussion groups helped them to relieve the boredom and tension. As such, George met and befriended a number of prominent artists and writers including Norman Hepple, who painted his portrait.
In 1943 Hepple’s portrait was included in a pamphlet entitled Jim Braidy – The Story of Britain’s Firemen which paid tribute to wartime fire fighters who were subjects of war artists.
In 2018 the London Fire Brigade (LFB) invited George’s great granddaughter Dr Samantha Harding to unveil a red plaque in his honour at New Cross Fire Station. Dr Harding has also acquired Hepple’s portrait of George and is planning to make the portrait available for the public to see at events around the country.
For further information about George A. Roberts go to Dr Samantha Harding’s website about her great grandfather www.georgearthurroberts.com
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, London-born cabaret singer Evelyn Dove toured Europe and one of her most notable achievements was becoming, in 1925, the first woman of colour to broadcast on BBC Radio, three years after its launch.
With war clouds (and a Nazi invasion) looming over Europe, Evelyn came home to England and, in 1939, she began a long and very successful association with protrait the BBC.
During the war, she was one of the most popular singers on the Radio. She even had three Radio series of her own: Rhapsody in Black, Sweet and Lovely and Serenade in Sepia.
In 1946 she had her own BBC television series. Evelyn defied convention.
Though born into a West African-British middle-class family, she defied convention (and upset her strict Sierra Leonean father) to follow her dreams. She became one of the most glamorous and charismatic entertainers this country has produced.
In 1942 her portrait was painted by Louis Ginnett, a well-known painter of portraits who lived in East Sussex, not far from the home of Evelyn’s mother.
In 2023 Evelyn was honoured with a Nubian Jak Community Trust/Battersea Society blue plaque outside her former home in Barnard Road, Wandsworth.
The recently refurbished Peckham Library has on display the splendid bronze portrait of the community leader Dr Harold Moody which was sculpted by his younger brother, the celebrated artist Ronald Moody.
Dr Moody’s home and surgery was in Queens Road, just a short walk from Peckham Library, so it is fitting it is on display there.
While Dr Moody was tending to the needs of the people of Peckham during the London Blitz, he was joined by Ronald who managed to escape from his home in Paris, France just before the Nazi invasion and occupation of the country. The bronze portrait mysteriously vanished but it was eventually rediscovered and in 2007, with the help of Harold and Ronald’s niece, Cynthia Moody (the curator of the Ronald Moody Archive), and myself, it was purchased by Southwark Council and given a permanent home in Peckham Library.
A copy of the portrait, also by Ronald, can be seen on display at the National Portrait Gallery.
Stephen Bourne’s Under Fire – Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 has been published by The History Press. Information about Stephen’s other books, including Evelyn Dove – Britain’s Black Cabaret Queen, can be found on his website www.stephenbourne.co.uk