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Fred Jay Girling

Fred Jay Girling (1900-1982) was a naval architect. He was born in Leicestershire and lived in Wellingborough and Kettering in 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.

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HMS Fernie
A watercolour measuring 10” x 13¾”. Signed Fred Jay Girling. Inscribed in pencil verso ‘HMS Fernie’.

The Subject
HMS Fernie was a Type I Hunt-class Destroyer…

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…built by John Brown & Co. of Clydebank for the Royal Navy and completed in June 1940. She was adopted by the community of Market Harborough in Leicestershire, as part of the Warship Week campaign in 1942. Warship Weeks were national savings campaigns aimed at getting Royal Navy warships adopted by civil communities. In August 1942 HMS Fernie was part of the escort force supporting the landings in the abortive Dieppe Raid and was subject to heavy air attack during the raid. In 1944 she provided support for the Allied landings in Normandy. She has been the only ship in the Royal Navy to carry this name.

HMS Anson
A watercolour measuring 6¾” x 8¼”. Signed Fred Jay Girling. Inscribed in pencil ‘HMS Anson’. Provenance: sometime with Mawson, Swan & Morgan, Fine Art Dealers, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne (label verso).

The Subject
A King George V-class battleship…

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…of the Royal Navy, named after Admiral George Anson. She was launched on 24 February 1940 and saw service in the Second World War, escorting nine Russian convoys in the Arctic by December 1943. She accepted the surrender of Japanese forces occupying Hong Kong on 15 August 1945 and after the end of the war she became the flagship of the 1st Battle Squadron of the British Pacific Fleet. She was in active service until 1949. This painting depicts her with the Firth of Forth Bridge in the background.

Windjammer with six-sailed masts
A watercolour measuring 13¼” x 18¾”. Signed Fred Jay Girling.

The Subject
A full-rigged iron-hulled commercial sailing ship of the late 19th/early 20th century, with six square-rigged sails to each of the three masts.

Windjammer with five-sailed masts
A watercolour measuring 12½” x 17½”. Signed Fred Jay Girling.

The Subject
A full-rigged iron-hulled commercial sailing ship of the late 19th/early 20th century, with five square-rigged sails to each of the three masts.

A Sailing Boat
A watercolour measuring 10” x 13¾”. Signed Fred Jay Girling.

A Fishing Trawler
A watercolour measuring 9½” x 13½”. Signed Fred Jay Girling.