Jutland on Canvas

In May 1916, Captain Ernest Clegg, a British company commander on the Western Front, went to London on leave. While there, he was invited to visit his old friend Captain Kiddle of the dreadnought Revenge, which was anchored with the rest of the British Grand Fleet in Scapa Flow. Mrs. Clegg thought it would be a nice change for her husband, packed him off to Scotland. An hour after Captain Kiddle welcomed his guest on his quarterdeck, the Grand Fleet steamed out on emergency orders and the Battle of Jutland, greatest modern naval engagement, was on.

Infantryman Clegg had a box seat. The Revenge happened to be the sixth ship of Admiral Jellicoe's line of battle and the third to open fire. Five days after the battle, Ernest Clegg returned to France. Three weeks later he was severely wounded in the Battle of the Somme. In November 1918 his friend Captain Kiddle invited him out to the Revenge again to witness the surrender of the German Navy.

After the War, Ernest Clegg returned to his home in Manhattan and the civilian occupation of painting. Naturally he wanted to paint the most extraordinary thing that ever happened to him, but there was a living to earn. He earned it by drawing decorative maps for magazines and decorators. Last week, however, at Rockefeller Center's British Empire Building in Manhattan he exhibited the newly completed job in which his heart had been for 20 years: the Battle of Jutland and the surrender at Scapa Flow on canvas.

Over from Brooklyn Navy Yard came U. S. Rear Admiral Harris Laning to make a little speech. Up from Washington came British Captain F. C. Bradley, R. N. to make another. These seadogs found no technical flaw in Soldier Clegg's work, for Soldier Clegg had with great accuracy noted on the spot every shell splash, turret and barbette.

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