Sir Frederick Sykes by Sir William Orpen, oil on canvas

An early supporter of air power, Sir Frederick Sykes KCB CMG CBO DSO was Chief of the Air Staff when the First World War ended in November 1918. Immediately afterwards he advocated for the RAF to remain an independent service.

Sir William Orpen, a renowned artist of the First World War, painted Sykes' portrait in 1919. The occasion for this might have been Sykes' appointment, several months earlier, as Chief of Air Staff, following Viscount Hugh Trenchard's resignation. Or it might have marked the occasion of Sykes' own exit from the RAF (upon Trenchard's return to the role from 30 March 1919), when he was honoured with the titles of Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire. In his post-RAF role as Director of Civil Aviation, Sykes was then tasked with promoting aviation to the public. Like Orpen's other paintings of military men, including Trenchard and Ganga Singh, this portrait is not highly finished: areas of the canvas remain untouched by paint. Rather than indicating an unfinished picture, this omission was, for Orpen, most likely a stylistic conceit, perhaps to convey a sense of urgency and transience appropriate to war subjects. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the RAF Museum in 2011. Copyright: Bridgeman Images and RAF Museum.