Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring (1943)
This painting by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) featured on the Wikipedia Main Page, piquing my interest. This is a screen-grab.
I do recall the announcement of Dame Laura Knight's death and reading her obituary. Her favourite subjects were theatre and ballet scenes, traditional fairs and gypsies - all of which I deemed with the certainty and arrogance of my youth to be twee, chocolate boxy. I gave little consideration to her work thereafter. At the outbreak of World War II, Laura Knight was appointed as an official artist by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. She left a superb legacy of ordinary life during that turbulent period, focusing on the sterling contribution made by women to the war effort.
The scene here is at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Newport, South Wales. Aged only 22 at the time, Ruby Loftus is shown performing some highly skilled work that had once been the preserve of men, and after a long apprenticeship. Ruby Loftus learned those skills within 12 months.
Ruby Loftus and the painting have been described as Britain's version of Rosie the Riveter, and like its American counterpart, its purpose was to encourage young women to take up engineering work.
The Royal Ordnance Factory management was certainly impressed by Ruby Loftus' skills and offered her a long-term appointment. However, having married in 1943, she and her husband emigrated to Canada in the immediate postwar period. She died in British Columbia in 2004 at the age of 83. She however is not forgotten in her native Newport. The Royal Ordnance Factory has been razed to the ground, but a proposed housing development, Loftus Garden Village, will perpetuate her memory. Dame Laura Knight's original painting can be viewed in the Imperial War Museum.
Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring (1943)
This painting by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970) featured on the Wikipedia Main Page, piquing my interest. This is a screen-grab.
I do recall the announcement of Dame Laura Knight's death and reading her obituary. Her favourite subjects were theatre and ballet scenes, traditional fairs and gypsies - all of which I deemed with the certainty and arrogance of my youth to be twee, chocolate boxy. I gave little consideration to her work thereafter. At the outbreak of World War II, Laura Knight was appointed as an official artist by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee. She left a superb legacy of ordinary life during that turbulent period, focusing on the sterling contribution made by women to the war effort.
The scene here is at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Newport, South Wales. Aged only 22 at the time, Ruby Loftus is shown performing some highly skilled work that had once been the preserve of men, and after a long apprenticeship. Ruby Loftus learned those skills within 12 months.
Ruby Loftus and the painting have been described as Britain's version of Rosie the Riveter, and like its American counterpart, its purpose was to encourage young women to take up engineering work.
The Royal Ordnance Factory management was certainly impressed by Ruby Loftus' skills and offered her a long-term appointment. However, having married in 1943, she and her husband emigrated to Canada in the immediate postwar period. She died in British Columbia in 2004 at the age of 83. She however is not forgotten in her native Newport. The Royal Ordnance Factory has been razed to the ground, but a proposed housing development, Loftus Garden Village, will perpetuate her memory. Dame Laura Knight's original painting can be viewed in the Imperial War Museum.