It is appropriate that the central collection of the MOD should contain works of art depicting both twentieth century world wars.
Activity during the 1939-45 war is widely represented, and again the concentration is on naval activity rather than on land campaigns.
The works of the War artists were presented to the Admiralty and to the War Office in 1946 by the War Artists Advisory Committee. The works of art shown here are all on display in various conference rooms and senior offices around Whitehall.
The Battle of Taranto was a naval battle that occurred on the night of November 11 1940 during World War II. The Royal Navy launched the first all-aircraft naval battle in history, flying a small number of aircraft from a single aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean and attacking the Italian fleet at Taranto.
Rowland Langmaid was born in Canada on 1 December 1897. He was the eldest son of Captain J Langmaid, who was an engineer in the Royal Navy. Langmaid joined the Royal Navy in 1910 and went to sea at the beginning of the First World War serving at the Dardenelles in HMS "Agamemnon" where he made official sketches for landings.
After the war Rowland Langmaid studied at the Royal Academy School and the Royal College of Art. He held exhibitions at the Royal Academy and in London, New York, and Paris. Langmaid was a highly accomplished engraver as well as a painter in oil and watercolour with a style similar to the famous marine artist W L Wyllie with whom he collaborated in Sea Fights of the Great War, 1914-18.
Langmaid returned to the Active List in 1939 in the rank of Lieutenant Commander and served as official Admiralty artist to the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet from 1941 to 1943.