A Sergeant Wireless Operator from the Gold Coast, 299: Sgt Robert Smith Eminsang by Edith Honor Earl, chalk on paper

Sgt Robert Smith Eminsang (service number 1479657), whose family were from the Gold Coast in Western Africa, was a married resident of Stockwell, London, when he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve. He served as a Wireless Operator and Air Gunner in the Second World War with No.179 Squadron, a maritime patrol, anti-submarine warfare unit.

Eminsang sat for this portrait in 1943. Only months later, on 8 January 1944, he was killed in action near Gibraltar when his Wellington bomber was shot down during an unsuccessful attack on a U-boat. Edith Honor Earl drew Eminsang's portrait for her 'Warriors of the Empire' exhibition at the Royal Empire Society, London, which opened 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 large display of 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.