RAF Marine Craft, Drummore, Stranraer, 1941

This watercolour shows Drummore Harbour. It was painted during the Second World War. The artist is Charles Cundall. Cundall began his career as a textile designer but following serious injuries during the First World War he retrained as a watercolour artist. He built up quite a reputation as a landscape painter and soon after the outbreak of the Second World War he was appointed as an Official War Artist. In 1941 he was assigned to the RAF and spent some time recording the air fields and training units in Wigtownshire. He produced a number of paintings in the Stranraer area, including the flying boat base at RAF Wig Bay. Many of Cundall’s works from the 1940s are now in the Imperial War Museum. This painting is called “RAF Marine Craft, Stranraer”. Cundall was using Stranraer to mean the local area rather than the town itself and this view shows the harbour at Drummore. The motor boat was used by the air-sea rescue unit based in the village. This unit also supplied marine craft and target boats for the bombing range in Luce Bay.