A Bahamian Flight Engineer, 289: Sergeant Basil Johnson by Edith Honor Earl, chalk on paper

Basil Lawrence Ivan Johnson (1920-2004), from New Providence, the Bahamas, arrived in Liverpool on 19 September 1941 to join the RAF Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR).

After a year of training, Johnson (service number 1396487) initially served as a mechanic, after which he became a Flight Engineer Gunner, selected for No. 115 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, and then for No.156 Squadron, the Pathfinder Force. At this time, more than half of Bomber Command aircrew were drawn from the RAFVR. In April 1944 Johnson was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) for being an outstanding member of the Pathfinder Force crew, with a devotion to duty. Johnson’s Wing Commander cited his ‘resourcefulness and unfailing efficiency’, his ability to remain ‘cool and unruffled under fire’ and his ‘skill and reliability’ as characteristics that supported the safety of aircraft and inspired fellow crew members. He completed 50 missions in Lancaster bombers. Later in life, for public service he was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, 1993, on the advice of Her Majesty’s Bahamas Ministers. Edith Honor Earl drew this portrait of Johnson as a Sergeant, before his promotion to Warrant Officer, 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. Purchased in 1988. Copyright: the Artist's Estate / RAF Museum.