Wartime firefighter artist.

We recently received a donation to our collection – an amazing book filled with sketches by artist David Gore.

David Gore - firefighter artist

When stationed at Enfield as a firefighter in the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS), David captured his crew in these soft colour-pencil profiles. They sat for him in September 1940 and many signed their names underneath their likenesses.

David continued as an amateur painter after the war, and created a number of drawings and paintings. He focused on local scenes, particularly seafronts and boats, but also parks and buildings of historic or local interest, including Canterbury Cathedral. 

There is vibrantly colourful portrait in the Ramsgate Maritime Museum of Douglas Kirkaldie, painted in around 1950 which he gifted to them. You can see it via ArtUK.

When he passed away in 1988 much of David's work, including the sketchbook, was cared for by a close friend and this in turn has now entered the Museum's care. This will ensure that these fantastic portrait profiles will be shared and enjoyed by a wider audience.

We would love your help

There are 36 AFS portraits sketched by David and we would really like to be able to identify all their names to cross-check and share any stories about their time in the AFS. However some of the signatures are a bit tricky and we can’t quite identify all of them, and this is where we’d love your help.

Updates

Following our callout for assistance from our newsletter in October, two of our fantastic subscribers have deciphered all the names in Groups 1 and 2, and there is just verification of 'W A Hart' in Group 3 which is proving trickier.

So far their names have been cross referenced with the 1939 register, which was compiled at the start of the Second World War to help produce identity cards, and later ration books. This has nicely started the process of building and collecting their stories.

We will continue to add more portraits to identify their names - so watch this space.

Do you recognise any of these faces or names? Please let us know by messaging us at - museum@london-fire.gov.uk