St. John Ambulance Brigade at Work in a London Underground Station by Doris Zinkeisen, watercolour and gouache on paper

This work represents one of the many first-aid posts established in London Underground shelters during the Second World War. It shows Civil Defence workers’ combined duties of medical and Air Raid Precautions support.

Doris Zinkeisen enjoyed a varied career as a painter and theatrical designer after training at the prestigious Royal Academy Schools. In the First World War, she served as a Voluntary Aid Attachment nurse and later she resumed nursing during the Blitz. Zinkeisen had declined offers of Official War Artist commissions and independently pursued her own subjects, producing works which she then sold to the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. Purchased in 1988. Copyright: the artist's estate / RAF Museum.