Signed and inscribed : "Down another foot, Walter", trench digging in the lake district
Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour on paper
Exhibited : Bristol exhibition 1950
Tags: Gilbert Spencer watercolour men trees war work Gilbert Spencer
Provenance: The Artists Daughter; thence by descent
Exhibited : Bristol exhibition 1950
From 1941, Gilbert Spencer worked with the Royal College of Art at Ambleside in the Lake District. Too old to serve in the army Spencer was active in the Home Guard as a subsection leader. His witty observations of life in the Home Guard were captured in a series of large watercolours, which were intended for publication. The publication however had to be abandoned after the watercolours were intercepted by the Royal Mail, on their way to the printers, and ripped along one side (subsequently repaired by Spencer) as an act of censorship.
