Stella Bowen: The war years period
- Periods:
- To England
- An artist's journey
- Inner worlds
- The return to England
- The war years
Group Captain Hughie Edwards
painted in Binbrook, Lincolnshire, England, 1944
oil on board 50.6 x 40 cm
signed l.r., pencil “STELLA BOWEN”, not dated
Australian War Memorial
acquired under official war art scheme, 1944
The child of Welsh immigrants, Hugh Idwal Edwards (1914–1982) was born in Fremantle, Western Australia. Although at the time he had never even seen an aeroplane up close, he was accepted into the Royal Australian Air Force as a cadet. On graduating as a pilot, he transferred to Royal Air Force (RAF).
In 1938, Edwards suffered a badly broken leg in a flying accident that threatened to end his career, but by 1941 he was leading his own squadron on daylight bombing raids on Germany. He became the first airman to win the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Service Order, and in 1943 he took command of the RAF station at Binbrook. In later life, he served as Governor of Western Australia.
Paintings
- Julia
- The house opposite
- Flight from reason
- Embankment gardens
- Admiral Sir Ragnar Colvin
- Bomber crew
- Bombing up a Lancaster for Wing Commander Douglas
- Remains of a flying bomb
- Group Captain Hughie Edwards
- D-Day, 0300 hours, interrogation hut
- Flying Officer Frederick Syme, Sunderland captain
- Pilot Officer Ronald Warfield
- A Sunderland crew comes ashore at Pembroke Dock (F. Syme, Ron Warfield, Ron Tyson, Eric Genders, Charlie Martin, Spud Murphy, Bob Meade, Merv Pike, Jock Beattie, Curly Rowland and John Bishop)
- At the Churchill Club, large and small worlds
- RAAF airmen at Mongewell Park Medical Rehabilitation Unit
- Private, Gowrie House
- Repatriated prisoner of war is processed
- Brigadier George Langley
- Reception desk at Gowrie House, Eastbourne
- Theaden in Kensington
- [Flowers in a green Norwegian pot]