John Worsley (artist)
| John Worsley | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Godfrey Bernard Worsley 16 February 1919 Liverpool, UK |
| Died | 3 October 2000 (aged 81) England |
| Occupation | Artist, Midshipman, Illustrator |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | St Winifred's boarding school, Brighton College, Goldsmiths |
| Genre | Children's books |
| Notable works | P.C. 49, Belle du Ballet, John Worsley's War |
John Godfrey Bernard Worsley (16 February 1919 – 3 October 2000) was a prolific British artist and illustrator, best known for his naval battle scenes, and portraits of high-ranking officers and political figures. One of the very few active service artists of the Second World War, Worsley was the only person to render contemporary sea-warfare in situ, and the only official war artist captured by the Germans. Detained in the infamous prisoner-of-war camp Marlag-O, Worsley documented prison life with supplies provided by the Red Cross, his expertise employed in the forging of identity papers, and an ingenious escape attempt requiring the construction of a mannequin named Albert R.N.
During his lifetime, Worsley was president of the Royal Society of Marine Artists: sixty-one of his paintings – including portraits of Field Marshal Montgomery, and the First Sea Lord, Sir John Cunningham – hang in the Imperial War Museum, with another twenty-nine pictures archived in the collections of the National Maritime Museum.
Worsley spent his childhood on a coffee farm in Kenya, his family having emigrated from Liverpool just six months after his birth. In 1928 he was sent back to England and was enrolled in St.Winifred's boarding school from where Worsley won a scholarship to Brighton College, after which he spent three years studying Fine Art at Goldsmiths' School of Art. After graduating, in 1938, Worsley secured work as a commercial illustrator, mainly working on romance magazines.
At the start of World War Two, Worsley joined the Royal Navy and spent three years on convoy escort duty in the Atlantic and the North Sea. During that period Worsley served on HMS Laurentic, HMS Lancaster and HMS Devonshire. Worsley was aboard the Laurentic when it was torpedoed and sunk in November 1940. Worsley's painting of that incident, based on sketches he made at the time in an open lifeboat, plus his drawings of wartime life at sea gained the attention of Kenneth Clark – the director of War Artists' Advisory Committee –who appointed him as one of the two full-time artists attached to the Commander-in-Chief's staff, Malta.
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