National Galleries of Scotland

The Royal Engineers built a huge temporary port at Richborough in Kent to supply the armies on the Western Front. Barges were built on site to carry equipment, munitions and stores across the Channel. Towards the end of the war, a rail ferry berth was constructed, which can be seen on the left of the painting; in the foreground artillery waits to be loaded on to train ferries. Lavery had to climb up to the cabin of one of the electric cranes on the wharf to get this perspective.

This painting shows the interior of the third, very large, shed at East Fortune which had been built between the two existing sheds in April 1917 to house the new rigid airships. The R.29 arrived on 29 June 1918 and it proved to be the most successful of the Royal Navy's airships. On 29 September it became the only airship to take part in the destruction of a German submarine, the UB115, at Newton-by-the-Sea off the Northumberland coast. Next to the R.29 is the North Sea Class non-rigid airship N.S.7, in which Lavery would make a flight over the North Sea.

The ruins of a large Second World War command centre now occupy the summit of Wee Fea Hill and this is one possible location for the Signal Station in this painting.  Alternatively, this view may have been painted further along the coast of Hoy, perhaps from Rysa Lodge, where there would have been a better view of the Main Fleet anchorage and of Mainland, the largest island of Orkney.

Bruce Peebles’s electrical engineering works, where this scene was painted, was situated in East Pilton, just south of Granton Harbour. During both World Wars the company produced shells, submarine and aircraft parts and electrical equipment such as mobile search lights. Here women are polishing and finishing shell cases.

The United States of America entered the war in April 1917. The 6th Battle Squadron, comprising the battleships New York, Texas, Florida, Wyoming and Delaware, was treated as a unit of Britain’s Grand Fleet, based at Rosyth. Here the Squadron is moored beyond the Forth Bridge, more or less where the tanker berth is today. The contained threat of the battleships provides a man-made contrast to the natural beauty of the evening sky, as a spotter plane rises into the clouds.

The Appam was originally an English liner which travelled between Liverpool and West Africa carrying goods and passengers. On 16 January 1916 she was captured by the German ship SMS Moewe, whose crew removed her cargo of gold bullion. A small German crew sailed The Appam to West Hampton, Virginia, since the USA was then neutral territory. In March 1917 the US Supreme Court ruled that the now empty liner should be returned to her previous owners. Her notoriety, as well as her striking appearance, may have prompted Lavery’s attention.

Lavery came across this scene in May 1919 while driving north to Boulogne.  Members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps are tending the graves, which are still being laid out.  The wooden crosses would later be replaced by white headstones. The train passing by in the distance gives an odd poignancy to the scene.

This view was probably painted in September 1914, in the knowledge that war had recently been declared and that this tranquil scene would soon be transformed. The biplane seen over the bridge would have come from the recently established aerodrome at Port Laing, North Queensferry. This was the first military air station in Scotland. The view is from the fields above South Queensferry and the small ship is approaching Hawes Pier.