An Officer from the Leeward Islands, 303: F/O Kelsick by Edith Honor Earl, chalk on paper

Flying Officer Osmond Randolph Howard Kelsick (service number 149954), from Montserrat, joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) in December 1940, after which he undertook pilot training and received his commission in October 1943, flying Hawker Typhoons in air-to-ground attacks with 175 Squadron as part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force (2TAF) supporting the liberation of Europe.

Ground attack operations, which supported the advance of Allied forces across Europe, involved conducting bombing raids and strafing runs over enemy positions, infrastructure and vehicles, to disrupt the enemy's offensive capabilities. Kelsick recorded such operations from his Hawker Typhoon aircraft using a gun camera, producing moving image films of the targets he attacked (IWM collection). In the year he sat for this portrait, Kelsick was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and cited as displaying ‘great determination and keenness in the execution of his assignments’, showing the ‘powers of an outstanding leader’. He was praised for participating ‘in many attacks on strongly defended targets’, contributing to ‘much damage’ inflicted on the enemy. Months before his promotion to Flight Lieutenant, Edith Honor Earl drew Kelsick's portrait for her 'Warriors of the Empire' exhibition at the Royal Empire Society, which opened in London’s Grosvenor House in December 1944. It is one of 22 portraits by her in the RAF Museum collection (besides others elsewhere) which celebrate the contributions of Service personnel from the British colonies and Commonwealth in the Second World War. Earl came from a wealthy and influential background which she used for philanthropic ends, and she staged wartime exhibitions of her work in aid of charities. She intended for her Warriors of the Empire portraits to raise awareness of, and foster social cohesion with, the ‘thousands of men and women who came from all over the Commonwealth to help win the war … soldiers, sailors and airmen, representing every part of what was then termed the “Dominions” and “Colonies”’. Drawing personnel she met in club rooms or had contacted through Services organisations, she learned about their lives and countries of origin, and was, she explained, ‘saddened to discover how hurt they were by the woeful ignorance and complete lack of interest they found in so many of the people they met in this country’. To celebrate the distinctive identities of her sitters’ native countries, in the corners of her portraits Earl drew small, evocative vignettes of landscapes and landmarks. She hoped to educate people about the origins and cultures of her subjects, and to ‘make the British people more aware of the enormous debt of gratitude we owed to those splendid people’, devoting proceeds of the exhibition to their welfare and hospitality. While sitters' names, roles and countries were described by the artist, further research requires to be undertaken to shed more light on their biographies and service. The RAF Museum welcomes and encourages the sharing of information which may develop a more detailed record of each sitter. Purchased in 1988. Copyright: the Artist's Estate / RAF Museum.