Firemen Artists

Some members of the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) and the National Fire Service had been professional artists, art students, commercial designers and illustrators before the war. They continued to create in their spare time between alarms and when off duty. There were also volunteer firemen who were or who became amateur artists. Some said that they found it therapeutic to draw and paint the traumatic incidents etched on their minds during their 48-hour periods on duty. The experience of fighting fires under night skies illuminated by flames, flares and searchlight beams and the scenes of urban devastation they witnessed gave them upsetting but new subject matter. Amateur and professional artists were bonded by their common experience of the fire service and so were willing to exhibit together. This is how the term Firemen Artists came into being. On April 28th 1941, the newsreel company British Pathé produced a short film about AFS artists which included shots of the AFS men at work both as firefighters and as artists.

Several exhibitions of works by firemen artists were held at prestigious venues such as the Royal Academy, London. Touring exhibitions were dispatched around the English provinces and, in 1942, a show toured Canada and the United States where it served a propaganda function. Artists associated with the AFS included Harold Botcherby, Leslie Carr, Paul Dessau, Brian Gilks, Bernard Hailstone, Reginald Mills, Leonard Rosoman, John Sutton and Matvyn Wright. Much of their war work is in the collection of the Imperial War Museum. A book listed below was published showing many of the artist's work. Royalties were donated to the London Fire Service Benevolent Fund.

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