Going to be Decorated: Bomber Command by Alfred Reginald Thomson, oil on canvas

In this work, Bomber Command airmen in a hut celebrate news of their awards for distinguished service. After an evening of drinking, they have left behind an empty decanter and glasses, and have playfully climbed to the rafters of the building.

Scenes of camaraderie were untypical of Thomson’s formal Air Ministry pictures. Fearing he would be known exclusively as a portraitist, he negotiated to paint ‘occasional subject pictures’, including this one. Thomson’s painting was shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1944. From the Air Ministry allocation of works from the War Artists' Advisory Committee, 1947. Original accession number LD3915. On loan from the RAF Air Historical Branch (MOD). Copyright: Crown (expired) / RAF Museum.