An Officer from North Auckland, New Zealand, 284: P/O Snowden by Edith Honor Earl, chalk on paper

Edith Honor Earl made this portrait drawing for her exhibition 'Warriors of the Empire' with 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, who came from a wealthy and influential family, used her influence for philanthropic ends and staged wartime exhibitions of her work in aid of charities. She intended for her large display of '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 celebrated the distinctive identities of her sitters' native countries, drawing small evocative vignettes of landscapes in the corners of the portraits to educate people about their origins and 'make the British people more aware of the enormous debt of gratitude we owed to those splendid people'. Earl devoted proceeds of the exhibition to their welfare and hospitality. During the war, around 7,000 New Zealand airmen joined RAF squadrons from the Empire Training Scheme. Although the observer's brevet on his uniform (a wing adjacent to an 'o') indicates that Snowden was a member of air crew whose duties were primarily reconnaissance, it does not denote his specific role. While sitters' names, ranks 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.