A reproduction of the portrait by Keith Henderson from The Studio Magazine, December 1919.
Henderson had been on the Western Front as a war artist for the army and was then posted to the Royal Flying Corps in January 1917. Writing to his wife, he says that he has “been doing some drawings of RFC officers”.
This picture is of Lt Hugh Quidbit Nickalls RFC, who died in aerial combat in France in July 1917 aged 22.
The Studio Magazine for December 1919 reproduced the picture and provided a brief caption mentioning that Henderson ‘after long service in the fighting-line in France, was attached to the Air Force as an observer, and in a little book he has given a thrilling account of his first experience in this capacity. In the drawing opposite he pays tribute to the memory of a gallant and genial colleague.’
I can find no record of this ‘little book’ in any of the bibliographies including JISC (COPAC) and I am hoping your readers may help identify it and know whether it was ever published.
David Lynd
Ardingly, West Sussex
