Aircraft at Singapore airport with First Aid Nursing Yeomanry canteen

Ernest Buckmaster was born in Hawthorn, Melbourne on July 3 1897. After being rejected for military service due to his physical frailty Buckmaster attended the National Gallery Art School from 1918-24. Ernest Buckmaster was first offered a position as an official war artist on January 20 1945, following the recommendation of the previous Director of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales, James Stuart Macdonald, though he did not accepted his appointment until August 24 1945, following the completion of a commission in New Zealand. Due to his age of 48 and poor health Buckmaster was not enlisted in the army and was accredited as a war correspondent. Despite being commissioned to paint the Japanese surrender, after a lengthy process preparing to be transported to Singapore, Buckmaster, along with a group of correspondents and photographers arrived two days after the surrender ceremony.

In this painting Buckmaster depicts preparations to transport recently released Australian prisoners-of-war home from the Shelter Airfield. In the foreground some of the ex-prisoners-of-war are seen receiving refreshments from mobile canteen operated by members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, a volunteer organisation of British women. In the background the aircraft, (l-r): Avro 685 York, Douglas DC3, are ready to fly out.