Thomas Hennell (16 April 1903 – 1945) was a British artist and writer who specialised in illustrations and essays on the subject of the British countryside. He was an official war artist during the Second World War and was killed while serving in Indonesia in November 1945.

Early life

German Prisoners - being assembled and searched at Thiberville Art

Hennell was born in

Ridley, Kent Ridley is a place and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ash-cum-Ridley, in the Sevenoaks District, Sevenoaks district, in the county of Kent, England. It lies between Sevenoaks and Chatham, Kent, Chatham.. Ash, Sevenoaks, Ash and Ridley ...

in 1903, the second son of the Rev. Harold Barclay Hennell and Ethel Mary Hennell. He attended primary school in Broadstairs and then secondary school at

Bradfield College Bradfield College is a coeducational public school (independent boarding and day school) for pupils aged 13–18, in the village of Bradfield, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It is noted for its open-air Greek theatre and its trien ...

, Berkshire before studying art at

Regent Street Polytechnic The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

. Hennell qualified as a teacher in 1928 and taught for some years at the

Kingswood School Kingswood School is a private day and boarding school in Bath, Somerset, England. The school is coeducational and educates over 1,000 pupils aged 9 months to 18 years. It was founded by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in 1748, and is the ...

, Bath and at the

King's School, Bruton King's Bruton is an independent fully co-educational secondary boarding and day school in the English public school tradition located in Bruton, Somerset, England. It was founded in 1519 by Richard FitzJames, and received royal foundation sta ...

in Somerset. Whilst at college Hennell had begun travelling around the British countryside to work on essays and illustrations of rural landscapes. He had a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

from 1932–35 and was detained first at the

Maudsley Hospital The Maudsley Hospital is a British psychiatric hospital in south London. The Maudsley is the largest mental health training institution in the UK. It is part of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and works in partnership with the I ...

. When he recovered he returned to the work of recording scenes of rural crafts and craftsmen at work. He worked closely with H J Massingham, illustrating books by him and others.

Edward Bawden Edward Bawden, (10 March 1903 – 21 November 1989) was an English painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, and garden metalwork furniture. Bawden taught at the Royal College of Art, where he had be ...

, a fellow artist, encouraged Hennell to write ''The Witnesses'', an account of his mental illness.

Artist Biography

At the outbreak of war in 1939 Hennell wrote to the

War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artis ...

, WAAC, offering his services as an artist. He worked for the

Pilgrim Trust The Pilgrim Trust is an independent charitable grant-making trust in the United Kingdom. The Trust's aims are to improve the life chances of the most vulnerable and preserve the best of the past for the public to enjoy. The Trust awards approxima ...

in 1940, and the Ministry of Information in 1941, producing watercolours of rural crafts and agriculture in Kent, Dorset, Berkshire and Worcestershire. In March 1941 one of his paintings was purchased by WAAC and, later, he was given a commission to make drawings of harvest work. In 1943 Hennell was named as a full-time salaried

war artist A war artist is an artist either commissioned by a government or publication, or self-motivated, to document first-hand experience of war in any form of illustrative or depictive record.Imperial War Museum (IWM)header phrase, "war shapes lives" ...

and sent to replace

Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs, Castle Hedingham and othe ...

in Iceland. He painted in Iceland throughout the second half of 1943 before going to the northeast of England in January 1944 to paint maritime topics. In May 1944 Hennell went to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

to record the preparations for

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, which he took part in. Throughout the invasion he spent two months with the

Canadian First Army The First Canadian Army () was a field army and a formation of the Canadian Army in World War II in which most Canadian elements serving in North-West Europe were assigned. It served on the Western Front from July 1944 until May 1945. It was Cana ...

as they moved through the north of France. At this time he painted scenes of German prisoners of war and also the launch sites of

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb ( "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Reich Aviation Ministry () name was Fieseler Fi 103 and its suggestive name was (hellhound). It was also known to the Allies as the buzz bomb or doodlebug a ...

s. In October 1944 he was transferred to a Royal Navy unit, attached with the rank of Lieutenant in the

Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Roya ...

, with whom he recorded the Allied advance into Belgium and Holland. Hennell returned to England for surgery before starting an assignment with the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

in the Far East. He arrived in Burma in June 1945 and was based with an RAF unit near

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

as the Japanese retreated. Hennell completed a painting of an Allied victory parade in the city featuring

Lord Mountbatten Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy), Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (born Prince Louis of Battenberg; 25 June 1900 – 27 August 1979), commonly known as Lord Mountbatten, was ...

and also painted Indian units building an airstrip in the jungle. From Rangoon, Hennell travelled by train to

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

, then sailed to

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. From there, he sailed aboard to Penang and witnessed the retaking of the town and, later, the surrender of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

.From a book published by The Architectural Press (London) in 1947 with a memoir of Hennell by H J Massingham After Singapore, Hennell went to Indonesia and was at

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

when he was captured by Indonesian nationalist fighters in November 1945 and was presumed to have been killed shortly thereafter. As a naval officer who has no known grave, he is commemorated on the

Chatham Naval Memorial Chatham Naval Memorial is a large obelisk situated in the town of Chatham, Kent, which is in the Medway Towns. The memorial is a feature of the Great Lines Heritage Park. The huge expanse of the Great Lines was in its own right a layer of defen ...

in Kent.

Legacy

Hennell's art works centred on the countryside, and in particular hedging, threshing, baling and the clearing of orchards. Hennell was a member of The Royal Watercolour Society and exhibited in the

New English Art Club The New English Art Club (NEAC) is a society for contemporary artists that was founded in London, England, in 1886 as an alternative venue to the Royal Academy. The NEAC holds an annual exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Mall Galleries ...

. A number of his works are held by the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

, the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

and are also part of the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

art collection.

Bibliography

* 1934: ''Change in the Farm'' * 1936: ''Poems'' - with wood-engravings by Eric Ravilious * 1938: ''The Witnesses'' * 1943: ''British Craftsmen''From a copy of the ''Britain in Pictures'' series published by Collins in 1943 * 1947: ''The Countryman at Work'' * 1947: ''Six Poems'' - privately printed at Tunbridge Wells School of Arts and Crafts Hennell provided illustrations for * 1939: ''A Countryman's Journey'' by H.J Massingham, * 1939: ''Country Relics'' by H.J Massingham, * 1940: ''Chiltern Country'' by H.J Massingham, * 1943: ''English Farming'' by J.Russell, * 1943: ''The Land is Yours'' by C.H Warren, * 1944: ''Miles from Anywhere'' by C.H Warren, * 1944: ''Farms and Fields'' by C.S & C.S. Orwin * 1946: ''The Natural Order – Essays in the Return to Husbandry'' by H.J Massingham (with

Philip Mairet Philip Mairet (; full name: Philippe Auguste Mairet; 1886–1975) was a British designer, writer and journalist. He had a wide range of interest: crafts, Alfred Adler and psychiatry, and Social Credit. He translated major figures including Jean ...

Lord Northbourne Baron Northbourne, of Betteshanger in the County of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1884 for Walter James, 1st Baron Northbourne, Sir Walter James, 2nd Baronet, who had earlier represented Kingston upon H ...

, the

Earl of Portsmouth Earl of Portsmouth is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. After the death of Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth (c. 19 August 1673 - 14 November 1734), it was created in 1743 for John Wallop, 1st Viscount Lymington, who had ...

) * 1946-49: ''Recording Britain, Volumes 1,3 & 4'' by A.Palmer (Editor), * 1948: ''The Windmills of Thomas Hennell'' by Alan Stoyel.

References

External links