John Kingsley Cook was born in Gloucestershire in 1911. Following his artistic formation at the Royal Academy Schools, he went on to specialise in wood engraving at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.

Self-portrait, 1941. Pen wash and chart paper. Photo: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed lecturer at the Edinburgh College of Art. The outbreak of the war put a temporary end to his artistic career. Following a spell with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade, he enrolled with the Merchant Navy as a wireless radio officer. Cook took part in the early transatlantic sea voyages to the United States and while at sea, he continued to sketch and paint whenever the occasion presented itself.

In the summer of 1941, Cook was involved in a secret mission to supply Malta. He was aboard the Empire Guillemot when it sailed from Oban in Scotland with a cargo of fodder bound for our island on August 30, 1941. Empire ships were in the service of the British government and run by the Ministry of War Transport. The latter sometimes chose to subcontract the vessels to shipping companies belonging to the British Merchant Navy.

Since the situation in Malta had become dire due to the lack of vital provisions reaching it, the British decided to supply the island clandestinely by unescorted merchant ships. This was rendered possible due to the presence of smaller merchant vessels already navigating along the coasts of the Mediterranean. The British authorities hoped that the merchant vessels would not raise the suspicions of the Axis forces if they were seen in Maltese territorial waters.

A month after sailing from Scotland, the Empire Guillemot, bearing Spanish markings, and escorted by the corvettes Gentian and Jasmine, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar. In order to avoid detection, the vessel hoisted a Vichy flag as it approached Bizerta in Tunisia. Once it reached its destination in Tunisia, the ship assumed Italian colours and immediately followed the sea route up north towards Sicily.

Bathing in Valletta, 1941. Pen, wash and chart paper washed by immersion in the sea. Photo: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

On its final run to Malta, the vessel finally changed to British colours and reached Malta early on September 19, 1941. This part of the vessel’s journey proved to be uneventful, and Cook recorded the Empire Guillemot’s entry into Grand Harbour with a detailed sketch executed retrospectively 40 years later. This sketch is reproduced in the article. Cook captioned the drawing and noted that all on board the vessel were welcomed by the clapping and cheers of the grateful Maltese.

Cook and his companions spent the next few weeks in Malta while the Empire Guillemot underwent repairs. The crew enjoyed leisure time as well as some sightseeing trips. In his unpublished memoirs, Cook wrote that since the crew’s stay on the island coincided with hot and humid September weather, they often went swimming in Grand Harbour to cool down.

Man Playing Guitar and Others, Malta, 1941. Pen, wash and chart paper washed by immersion in the sea. Photo: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Cook sketched the crew enjoying this off-duty moment. Another one of his Malta sketches is entitled Man playing Guitar and Others, Malta, 1941, which suggests that the crew might have frequented one of the venues in Valletta offering live entertainment. The Empire Guillemot was scheduled to return to Scotland after leaving Malta. As the vessel experienced engine trouble on October 17, it could not sail out as planned. It eventually left Malta without an escort at night on October 22, but as fate would have it, the vessel was immediately tailed by the Italian naval trawler, the Corrispondente Beta, and was torpedoed soon afterwards. The Empire Guillemot subsequently sunk off the coast of Algeria.

Ship Sinking, 1980s, paper, pen and ink wash. Photo: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

As a result of the torpedo attack, one officer was killed, and the remaining 38 crew and six gunners got away in two lifeboats. On board Cook’s lifeboat, the first mate organised watches. Cook wrote down the names of the men on duty on the back of a piece of navigational chart. The lifeboat unfortunately capsised four days later due to the rough sea and half of the seamen drowned.

Cook was one of the lucky few who swam to shore safely and managed to take with him what was left of his sketchbooks and art supplies. Many of these drawings (which included the Malta ones) were immersed in the sea for some time during his swim to safety. The lower part of two of his Malta images, reproduced in this article, entitled Malta, 1941, and Bathing in Valletta, 1941, have clearly been faded by sea water.

The Lifeboat Amongst the Wreckage, 1980s. Paper, pen and ink wash. Photo: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Although the survivors made it ashore, they became prisoners-of-war and spent their first weeks of captivity in Bône, before being transferred to another internment camp in Méchéria in the Atlas Mountains. The British captives were released by the Allies in 1942. While in captivity, Cook continued to sketch and paint.

The War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC) in Britain, chaired by Sir Kenneth Clark, commissioned art that could usefully serve the war effort by documenting the hostilities and also promote ‘national culture’. Although Cook was not one of the 39 officially sanctioned war artists the WAAC had appointed at the start of the war, the committee decided to acquire nine of Cook’s wartime paintings, including those painted throughout his captivity in Algeria.

List made in the lifeboat to divide the watches, with Cook’s name at top right, 1941. Photo: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Cook’s championing of the Merchant Navy, his depiction of the Empire Guillemot’s shipwreck and the crew’s internment in Algeria were considered by the WAAC to be suitable material to be added its sizeable collection of paintings intended to document World War II.  Cook resumed service with the Merchant Navy on refuelling tankers until the end of the war.

After his discharge in August 1945, he rejoined the staff at the Edinburgh College of Art and taught engraving and graphic design and art history. He was appointed head of design in 1960 and took his retirement in 1971. Cook’s wartime sketches were included in the exhibition entitled War Artists at Sea that took place at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, in 2012.

Cook created several retrospective drawings of his war experience in the 1980s while he was working on his memoirs. A total of 262 drawings (both original and retrospective) as well as two oil paintings relating to World War II were presented by his family to the National Maritime Museum in 2012. The Malta drawings were brought to the author’s attention by the principal curator of War Artists at Sea.

Caroline Miggiani is author of The Official Colours of War.

Note: All the images featured with this article are covered by copyright of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Their unauthorised reproduction is not permitted.