Stella Bowen: Admiral Sir Ragnar Colvin
- Periods:
- To England
- An artist's journey
- Inner worlds
- The return to England
- The war years
Period: The war years
Admiral Sir Ragnar Colvin
painted in London, 1944
oil on canvas 91.4 x 71 cm
signed l.r., oil “STELLA/BOWEN”, not dated
Australian War Memorial
acquired under official war art scheme, 1944
Admiral Sir Ragnar Colvin (1882–1954) was a long-serving British naval officer who headed the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) at the outbreak of the Second World War.
After a long and illustrious career, Colvin was appointed Chief of Naval Staff to the Royal Australian Navy in 1937. Under his leadership, the RAN expanded its naval fleet and maintained a high profile in Australia’s military affairs.
At the outbreak of war Colvin was an active participant in international planning; however, by 1940 his health was failing and he resigned the following year. Colvin returned to London where he served as Naval Advisor to the Australian High Commission from 1942 to 1944.
Paintings
- Julia
- The house opposite
- Flight from reason
- Embankment gardens
- Admiral Sir Ragnar Colvin
- Bomber crew
- Bombing up a Lancaster for Wing Commander Douglas
- Remains of a flying bomb
- Group Captain Hughie Edwards
- D-Day, 0300 hours, interrogation hut
- Flying Officer Frederick Syme, Sunderland captain
- Pilot Officer Ronald Warfield
- A Sunderland crew comes ashore at Pembroke Dock (F. Syme, Ron Warfield, Ron Tyson, Eric Genders, Charlie Martin, Spud Murphy, Bob Meade, Merv Pike, Jock Beattie, Curly Rowland and John Bishop)
- At the Churchill Club, large and small worlds
- RAAF airmen at Mongewell Park Medical Rehabilitation Unit
- Private, Gowrie House
- Repatriated prisoner of war is processed
- Brigadier George Langley
- Reception desk at Gowrie House, Eastbourne
- Theaden in Kensington
- [Flowers in a green Norwegian pot]