Pamela Drew (11 September 1910 – 11 June 1989) was a British artist known for her paintings of marine and aviation subjects. Although Drew was born in the north of England she spent considerable periods of her career in Ireland.

Biography

Drew was born in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

and was the eldest daughter of John M. Drew, a well-known

calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than ...

painter. At an early age Pamela Drew took art classes at

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

before studying at the

Grosvenor School of Modern Art The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private British art school An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and ...

in London, where her younger sister Diana Drew also studied. In 1928, Pamela went to Paris to study under Roger Chastel. She exhibited in 1936 with the

Royal Institute of Oil Painters The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, also known as ROI, is an association of painters in London, England, and is the only major art society which features work done only in oil. It is a member society of the Federation of British Artists. Histor ...

. The same year she designed a poster for

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

as part of their ''Visit Britain'' campaign. The following year Drew married the fourth Baron Rathdonnell and took up residence at

Lisnavagh House Lisnavagh Estate is an estate house which lies outside the village of Rathvilly in County Carlow, Ireland. Lisnavagh is the family seat of the McClintock-Bunbury family, Barons Rathdonnell. A plaque in the present house states that the origin ...

Rathvilly Rathvilly () is a village in County Carlow, Ireland. The village is located on the River Slaney near the border with County Wicklow, 11 km from Tullow and 8 km from Baltinglass. It is also on the N81 national secondary route. Rathvill ...

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...

. During the Second World War, Drew served in the

Women's Royal Naval Service The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the ...

, being stationed in

Rosyth Rosyth ( gd, Ros Fhìobh, "headland of Fife") is a town on the Firth of Forth, south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the census of 2011, the town has a population of 13,440. The new town was founded as a Garden city-style suburb ...

, Plymouth and then

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

towards the end of the conflict. After the War, Drew participated in the founding exhibition of the Society of Marine Artists, later the

Royal Society of Marine Artists The Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA) is an association of artists in London, England, that promotes contemporary marine art. This includes painting, drawing, printmaking and sculpture.National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...

. The

Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasure ...

holds another of Drews' paintings from the

Harland and Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...

shipyard. In 1953 she was commissioned by the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, RAF, to depict the Coronation Review. In 1954 she returned to Belfast to record the launching of the ''Southern Cross'' and became a member of newly formed Society of Aviation Artists. The Air Ministry commissioned Drew as a war artist to record the activities of the Middle East Air Force at

Port Said Port Said ( ar, بورسعيد, Būrsaʿīd, ; grc, Πηλούσιον, Pēlousion) is a city that lies in northeast Egypt extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal. With an approximate population of 6 ...

and at

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boun ...

in 1955 and 1956. She also depicted RAF actions against the Mau Mau and in Cyprus. Both the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

and the

Royal Air Force Museum The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. The museum is a non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Defence and is a registered charity. The museum is split into two separate sites: * ...

in London, and the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

Art Collection hold examples of these paintings. In 1956 Drew had a solo exhibition of her paintings in London followed by two further solo shows in Nairobi in 1957 and 1958. Baron Rathdonnell died in 1959 and Drew remarried in 1961, to a Major Hugh Caruthers Massy. Drew continued to paint marine and aviation subjects. Her painting of Sir

Francis Chichester Sir Francis Charles Chichester KBE (17 September 1901 – 26 August 1972) was a British businessman, pioneering aviator and solo sailor. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for becoming the first person to sail single-handed around the worl ...

arriving in London to complete his round the world voyage on ''

Gipsy Moth IV ''Gipsy Moth IV'' is a ketch that Sir Francis Chichester commissioned specifically to sail single-handed around the globe, racing against the times set by the clipper ships of the 19th century. Gipsy Moth IV was the first ever purpose built o ...

'' is held by the

Port of London Authority The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its ...

. Although she kept a London address from 1970 to 1980, Drew lived at Ballinatray in

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

. While living in Ballinatray, Drew held an exhibition of her drawings from East Africa in 1975 at the Cork Arts Society's Galleries. The same venue displayed an exhibition of Drew's aviation paintings in 1978. Further exhibitions of her work were held at

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

in Spain in 1982 and at the Abbot Hall Art Gallery in

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

the following year.

References

External links

*
Works in the Imperial War Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drew, Pamela 1910 births 1989 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art British war artists English women painters People from Burnley Women's Royal Naval Service ratings