DOUBLE HONOUR COMMISSION - SOLD

 

Oil on canvas
2000mm x 1000mm

(79 inches) x (39 inches)

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Once again, I have had the privilege of capturing an amazing story from the 2nd World War, using the most fascinating and powerful images. I thank Martin Clark for the fantastic opportunity to capture these moments. I was given references and after working on the initial references, I decided that 2 images would be merged to form the final painting. Martins’ father can be seen holding the dog, Spot and on the other side he is 2nd from the left.

Martin Clark will elaborate on this story and after many conversations with Martin I was able to establish how he treasures the memories and photographs he has of his dad during service. My task was to capture those memories. Featuring twice in the final painting, ‘Double Honour’ seemed an appropriate title for the work.

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From Martin Clark (Story and Testimonial)

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Im posting a little bit of diving history that has a lot to do with HMS Vernon in Portsmouth from around the late 1940`s and involving my dad who was a clearance diver in the P Partys. And to also show you all a commissioned oil painting, of dad and his team, that has just been completed by Dave Coburn please take a look at his diving art.

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My dad joined the RN around 1946/7 and was at HMS Vernon for his dive training, he did a few months there then went on to maybe Hailing Island to do more intensive training then down to Brixham to do diving offshore from the diving tender HMS Tedbury. After this Brixham training he was assigned to the P Party group which were a group formed to clear the local (UK) ports of unexploded ordnance. One of the jobs they had to do was go to Manchester docks/shipping canal to clear it of ordnance which they did and whilst there the local newspaper The Manchester Evening News sent a photograper to the docks to get the lastest story on these Navy lads diving in the dock, you will see in the pictures below that there was a certain amount of show-boating (RN divers show-boating, no never?). So the photographer got some great shots of them whilst he was there. From what my dad told me they were there for around a week or so, they also had the obligatory team mascot, a spaniel called “Spot”, for obvious reasons and in one of the pictures below my dad is holding “Spot”

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After Manchester they had to go to Cromer in Norfolk where a British aircraft had been shot at coming back over the North Sea and had sustained damage that it had to crash land into the sea but very close to the shore-line, they had to go there to raise the aircraft and get the torpedo off of it that was stapped on underneath. Whilst in Cromer, they were based at the old Weybourne camp, which was an Army training camp in the North Norfolk coast about 7 miles from Cromer (It was the closest military accommodation). The P Party used to drive from Weyboune to Cromer every morning in their DUKW at break-neck speed, or as fast as it would go, blue lights flashing as they wanted all the young ladies to know the Navy was in town, his words not mine, and would then go to dive on the aircraft to raise it. Every morning around 10:00 while at Cromer there was a couple of cafes at the bottom of the Gangway that they used to go to get a cup of tea and a sarnie, as my dad used to go in there regular he saw a young lady waitress who had a sparkle in her eye ( my mum) who he took a fancy too and a couple of years later and married her.

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One day whilst working on Cromer they got a message to go back to Weybourne sharpish as there had been an incident there, when they returned they found that a young group of squaddies were playing football on the beach and one had stood on a landmine and killed 3 of them, none of the Army lads would go to assist or get the bodies back so they called the navy lads as they knew they dealt with ordnance so they went out to pick up what was left of them and also swept the rest of the beach and cordoned off where they should go in the future.

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So after collecting these pictures and some send to me by Rob Hoole from the HMS Vernon site, this ten got me googling around i found other pictures of him. It made me so proud that i have now got photos that actually back up what he had told me as a youngster of  his tales and exploits that happened whilst he was in the RN.

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About 2 months ago on a different group i saw the artist Dave Coburn and contacted him to do something for me that i can hang on my wall and be very proud of, I'm sure you'll agree he's done a fantastic job of showing just what these guys got up to in the late 40`s.