Artist Fred Jay Girling - Painting of HMS Vanguard

> back to previous page

Home Early Northants Artists Other Artists Exhibitions Reports Contact Us

Fred Jay Girling

HMS Vanguard

The Painting

A watercolour measuring 10½" x 14¾".

Signed Fred Jay Girling.

About the Artist

Fred Jay Girling (1900-1982), a naval architect, was born in Leicestershire and lived in Wellingborough and Kettering, Northamptonshire. Following the death of his father at Gallipoli during the First World War, the family moved to Belfast where Fred trained in naval architecture with Harland & Wolff. In 1929 he moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to work as a naval architect for the government. He was later posted in Leith as Chief Ship Surveyor for the East Coast of Scotland. He retired in 1965 and was awarded an OBE. In his later years he returned to live in Northamptonshire, in Mears Ashby. He was a self-taught artist and painted mostly watercolours of ships and churches.

The Subject

HMS Vanguard. HMS Vanguard was the last battleship completed for the Royal Navy. She was commissioned in August 1946 and served with the Home Fleet in various capacities until 1954. Late that year she went into the dockyard at Devonport for refit. Upon completion of the refit in 1955, she was placed in reserve where she remained until scrapped in 1960. This painting depicts the Vanguard manoeuvering under tug, with a passenger liner on the left.