CALLED UP AND AT WAR 1940 -1945

I was posted to a camp where I was an A2 aircraft hand. I had no ambitions in the Forces. I think I wrote to Jack Beddington. Was there anything I could do? I was wasting my talent. My duties weren't at all bad. I was attached to a drawing office, with a certain amount of technical drawing involved. There was another chap there who had been a good illustrator in civilian life. He had a brother who was in the Intelligence Service A13 in London and he got posted there to Barclay Square shortly after. Around 1943 they called me up and I was posted there too. Maps and work in photographic interpretation. They were an interesting group of people. They were all men in their Fifties. One had been in the British Museum Another was Bertram Rota who was in publishing and books. They were very nice. A different atmosphere from the camp. Nobody saluted. You were all in it together. There were four of us who were artists, and they made allowances for us. That's when I was made a sergeant.

The Head of it was a real dynamo. He had been the boss of GEC. We worked on targets and flying bombs. When the first one dropped I knew exactly what it was. Bertram Rota would calculate targets and pass the results to us artists. It was good to be back in London. By the end of the war I was doing some things for London Transport and the Post Office. In 1944 I was also doing posters on recruitment after the war for the Air Ministry.Not so interesting. My heart wasn't in it.

One popular poster was Action Stations (1943), an air gunner at the back of the aircraft, using the technique of stipple and stencil. The image was derived from some photographs I found.

Another favourite was Telephone Less where I tried to avoid using the work 'Telephone' but carry the meaning with a picture. It can work sometimes.