| Entry Text: | WORSLEY, John, & GIGGAL, Kenneth. John Worsley's War. 116p., illus., index. Shrewsbury: Airlife,1993. ISBN: 1853102571.
It was an active war. Worsley joined up as a midshipman in 1939 and was sunk in his first ship, the AMC Laurentic. This was followed by six months on Lancaster in the Atlantic then Wallace on the East Coast. After only two months there he joined Devonshire in the US and sailed to join the East Indies Fleet in spring 1942. She returned to the UK in the summer of 1943 and he was elected a War Artist, the first of only two active service artists. He next joined the staff of C-in-C Mediterranean and followed the action in Sicily and Salerno before being captured in November 1943 during clandestine operations by Coastal Forces in the Adriatic. He continued to work as an artist while a POW including three important portraits of naval VCs. He also created the famous dummy "Albert RN" used for a successful escape from Marlag "O". At the end of the war in Europe he completed his service by painting portraits of several notable VIPs, including Montgomery of Alamein. |
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