
Polly Cornthwaite
Senior Cataloguer
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Sold for £4,080 inc. premium
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Senior Cataloguer

Head of Sale
These meticulous drawings of naval ships and manoeuvres are fascinating examples of a naval officer who, as part of his training, was expected to be a good draughtsman. There is little information available about Harold Annesley Thompson, other than he was promoted to Paymaster Commander in 1909 and Paymaster-Lieutenant in 1914, as he does not appear on any list of official war artists.
A large number of the drawings depict scenes from the Dardanelles campaign. Some are the originals of sketches published in the Illustrated London News on 17 April 1915 showing "The sinking of the Bouvet in the Dardanelles". The ILN identified the artist as "a British Naval officer present at the action". These same images were interestingly reproduced in Berliner Journal and "The end of the Bouvet" was used in the The Times, History of the War, 1917, vol XII, p.55. Many of the unpublished drawings have a Press Bureau stamp and on these the initials have been scratched out, preserving the anonymity of the artist during the war. Lord Kitchener set up a new Press Bureau in 1914 to feed officially-approved accounts of the war to newspapers. This was swiftly dubbed the "Suppress Bureau" by disgruntled reporters.