Completed British 20th C, except portraits, London: Artists and Subjects, Military History 15 More information sought regarding war artist B. Gordon Smith

Judging by the dress and appearance of the young girl on the right, this would seem to be a scene from the 1914-18 war.

Is this the B. Gordon Smith who exhibited 'The Leven at Dumbarton' (no. 803) at the Royal Academy in 1935 - his address is given as 59 Chepstow Place, London? He also exhibited two pictures at the Royal Society of British Artists.
Anthony J Lester, FRSA

Betty, I believe it's dated 1941 - certainly I don't think the nurse on the left can be of WWI vintage. I believe cloaks and capes fastened with crossed red tapes like that only appeared in the 1930s or 40s, though they continued for many decades after (at least for some student nurses).

The Imperial War Museum has a file relating to the Nov 1941 purchase of this picture, though confusingly the artist is recorded there as 'Gordon B Smith': http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050001048

They also have another 1941 work, a watercolour, attributed to 'Gordon Smith', that may well be by the same artist. It was presented to the museum in 1998 by 'Mrs M Smith', perhaps the artist's widow:
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/24928

B. Gordon Smith illustrated a number of books in the 1940s & designed dust-jackets for many more in the 50s (though frustratingly he is not mentioned in Horne's Dictionary of C20th British Book Illustrators). I strongly suspect the other 'B. Gordon Smith' (of Twickenham) is the same man.

The latter lived at one address - 65 Pope's Av - from c1952 to at least 1981, during which timespan he is listed in the West Middlesex telephone directory. And throughout the 50s (until 1961) he puts the initials 'MSIA' after his name in the listing. After a lot of thought (and several wrong guesses) I've concluded that this probably stands for 'Member of the Society of Industrial Artists': the SIA was founded in 1930, and was the direct antecedent of today's Chartered Society of Designers. I will email the CSD later today, and see if they have any old membership records that may clarify things - unless, of course, someone else comes up with a better guess for 'MSIA'?

We have definitely found the Bernard Gordon Smith who was my father's best man in 1930. I met him as a 10+ year old at his Chepstow Place address (he gave us scraper board to work on). Later we knew him at Twickenham where he pointed out that he had MSIA after his name (yes, Society of Industrial Artists) but that a friend of his was a Member of the Sanitary Inspectors Association. He played fiddle for the Thames Valley Morris Men and other organisations related to the English Folk Dance and Song Society. I will in due course photograph and submit other of his works of art in the family. His beautiful wife Marjorie succeeded him by many year, and died in Norfolk.

Eric, I think you may have slightly misunderstood the nature of the PCF, of which Art Detective is an offshoot. It essentially concerns itself only with publicly-owned works of art, so you will not be able to submit works held by your family for inclusion in 'Your Paintings' - unless you donate them to a public gallery first, of course!

By the same token, what we do here is try and solve some puzzles and holes in the information held by public institutions about the works in their collections - and we happily give of our time and expertise to do this because it is (or may be) ultimately for the public's benefit.

Your desire to link the two B. Gordon Smiths seems to be more of a private investigation, so I will bow out of this now. You have the references in the IWM collection, and an invitation to research in their archive - you may well find the final connecting proof there in the shape of his 1941 address. I'm sure the CSD, too, will be happy to help if they can. Good luck!

Thanks all who have contributed to this discussion which will be added to our records. 'A Mobile First Aid Unit At Work' was purchased by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), part of the Ministry of Information. At the end of the Second World War, around 6,000 works had been collected by WAAC and were distributed to various museums, galleries and institutions in the UK and overseas. Around half of the works, including this one, came to IWM along with the WAAC's archive, including minutes, correspondence and administration. This includes the file relating to 'Gordon B Smith' which is a simple error as it is indeed about the purchase of the work by B Gordon Smith.

We have 2 works by Gordon Smith; this one also: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/24929 and as the inscription says 'B.G.S.' it looks highly likely to be the same artist.

Thanks again for all the feedback and please do contact us if you would like to follow-up this research.

Can we just confirm that the correct name of the artist of the two oils at IWM and related file is B Gordon Smith and that if there has been a transposition error then IWM will amend their records and presumably the PCF will do the same for the oil on the Your Paintings site.
An aside : it looks like a North African field hospital from the 1941 campaign and the dress of the figure on the right is presumably the Yeomanry Nursing unit.

Pat, both oils seem to be recorded correctly as 'B. Gordon Smith' on the 'Your Paintings' site, though the other one (see the IWM link above) is just listed as 'Gordon Smith' at the IWM. The transposition error only occurs in the heading of the IWM's catalogue entry for the file relating to this one's purchase.

Rather contradicting my previous intention, as we do seem to be providing useful information for the IWM - Eric, I have just found your website, from which it is clear that 'B. Gordon Smith', the artist of this work must indeed be the Bernard Gordon Smith you knew - the clincher is surely that, as you relate, he "was an artist, but gave it up for ambulance driving in WWII"? [ http://www.chezfred.org.uk/ArthsLife.htm ]. This of course directly ties in with the subject of this painting: I wonder if the IWM is correct in thinking he was with the Royal Signals? I note, too, that your father was a committed pacifist - it seems not unlikely that his friend was too, which again would link in with the ambulance driving.

From other details you give there I can also now link him (which I couldn't before) with the Bernard Gordon Smith born Kingsthorpe, Northants, on 28/1/1908, death registered Hounslow 1983 (3rd quarter). He was the only child of Alfred Hacon Smith, a Northampton stationer and picture frame maker who lived to the age of 102.

Would IWM like all four records to be attributed to Bernard Gordon Smith?

Our records have now been amended to Bernard Gordon Smith and I can now confirm we actually have 3 works by this artist http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=gordon smith&items_per_page=10&f[0]=webCategory:art
The changes won't show through immediately on the website but should hopefully come through in the next few days. Thank you for your patience.

IWM Art, please could you confirm if you accept the artist Bernard Gordon Smith is Bernard Gordon Smith (1908–1983)? Many thanks.

Yes, I have added the dates (1908 - 1983) to the artist's record. Many thanks.