His output as a professional artist included, in 1965, the portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II, commissioned by the RAF Regiment, marking the Monarch’s role as the Regiment’s Air Commodore-in-Chief. In 1972 Riddle turned his attention to HRH Prince Edward, on behalf of members of the Royal Household, creating a portrait for presentation to the Queen and Prince Philip on the occasion of their silver wedding. A somewhat impressionistic painting of a Hawker Hurricane by Huseph Riddle is held in The Wing visitor centre at the Battle of Britain Memorial, home of the National Memorial to the Few.
We have no evidence that William Barwell Holroyd (Hurricanes, Nos 151 and 501 Squadrons in the Battle of Britain) deployed his artistic talent other than as a hobby. In 2017 some drawings of female nudes, created by him before the war, were sold on an internet site and acquired by a collector of items associated with the Battle of Britain.
Maurice Toller Whinney took up portrait painting late in life. He earned the Battle of Britain Clasp flying Hurricanes on patrols in Scotland with No 3 Squadron. He later served in special operations, made a major contribution to improving radios used by the resistance in France and worked for the Foreign Office.
This versatile man went on to earn a living in banking and became a farmer in north Devon. When he retired from the land he took up portrait painting with some success. Works attributed to him include a self-portrait in which he is in RAF uniform and, on the website Art.UK, a representation of Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC.
A distinguished artist who examined photographs of these portraits in 2023 regretted that he had not seen them “in the flesh” but wrote that they looked “very accomplished, well drawn with good attention to detail”.
Maurice Whinney’s Database entry takes up the story of the portrait of Gibson, the man who led Operation Chastise, the attack, in 1943, by No 617 Squadron, Bomber Command, on a number of German dams.
“The Gibson portrait has had a chequered history. It originally hung in West Cornwall School in Penzance which closed in 1967. At that time the portrait was presented to Helston Borough Council, whose area included Porthleven, where Gibson had spent much time as a child, his maternal grandparents having their home there.
“In 1973, separate Helston and Porthleven town councils were created, but, controversially, the portrait remained hanging in Helston Guildhall for many years. In the 1990s it was badly damaged when, according to a report in The Packet newspaper, ‘The painting was ripped ….. when a group of rogue naval ratings climbed scaffolding on the Guildhall during maintenance work and broke in. At the time it was deemed irreparable.’
“An artist in The Netherlands (where Gibson had died when a Mosquito crashed in 1944) made a copy of the portrait and it was presented to Helston. Eventually, in 2015, Helston handed over both the original portrait and the copy, as well as other items of Gibson memorabilia, to Porthleven Town Council.”
Porthleven is proud of its link to the fabled Gibson. Perhaps the part played by one of the Few in keeping his memory alive deserves to be better known.
Geoff Simpson, FRHistS
