D-Day 1944 in paintings by Ray Howard-Jones, war artist from Wales, who worshipped at St Nicholas, Chiswick
Ray (Rosemary) Howard-Jones was a renowned Welsh war artist, sea painter, mosaicist, community theatre pioneer, poet and Christian mystic. During WW2 she was commissioned by the War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) to produce paintings of the fortifications on islands in the Bristol Channel (scroll down to see these); she also depicted the preparations for D-Day taking place around Penarth and the Cardiff Docks. WAAC accepted 15 of her paintings, including a portrait of her brother, a REME brigadier; these are now held by the Imperial War Museum, the National Army Museum, Amgueddfa Cymru/Museum Wales and other British galleries.
Ray would have liked to go over to France with the invasion forces, as some male artists did, but her requests were not granted. Instead, she was able to record the aftermath of D-Day, by painting a badly damaged Landing Ship Tank (LST) on its return to Wales from Utah Beach in Normandy – below.
Before the invasion on 6th June 1944, Ray also painted scenes of preparations for D-Day in Glamorgan, including the watercolour below: Sea Transport: Poles loading bombs. Watercolour, 1944, now in the Imperial War Museum. Below that are some of her paintings of the fortifications on islands in the Bristol Channel and in Wales, which were bought by WAAC.
In February 1944, the WAAC bought an oil painting of Ray’s brother Tony Howard-Jones (below left), who played a major role in the Western Desert Campaign: Brigadier L. Howard-Jones, OBE, REME: 8th Army, 1942-43. Oil on panel, 1943.
For much of her life, Ray lived and painted in Wales but she stayed in London for periods during the war. In 1942 she painted the picture below in Hammersmith: Ravenscourt Park: Workmen from Gibraltar. Gouache, 1942, now in the National Army Museum, London.
In 1947 Ray settled in London with a studio by Ravenscourt Park. The following year she met Raymond Moore and this was the beginning of a two-decade creative partnership. By 1954 they had moved into a Victorian villa in nearby Ashchurch Park Villas which Ray kept until she died in June 1996. Ray worshipped regularly at St Nicholas Church in Chiswick and her funeral took place there. She is pictured below left in her cottage in Martin’s Haven in Wales, 1981. Photograph © Kevin Redpath.
In September 2024, during the Chiswick Book Festival, the church hosted a talk on Ray’s life and work by David Moore, author of Ray Howard-Jones: My Hand is the Voice of the Sea, from which these images are taken. Our thanks to him, Sue Hiley Harris and the rights holders. You can buy the book here – save 35%.
Read more and see more of this year’s Remembrance images here on the St Michael & All Angels website: www.smaaa.org.uk and in our Remembrance Exhibition in the church.
Remembrance 2024: Marking 80 Years since D-Day and Chiswick’s V1 and V2