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Last Updated 03 January 2021
Will NobleThe Blitz, As Seen Through The Eyes Of Today's Artists
Tilbury Shelter by Krystal Wong. Children who spend their nights in the Tilbury Shelter, amuse themselves by drawing on the wall, 1941
The Blitz took place 80 years ago, between 1940-41. To mark this devastating spate of bombings across the UK's cities and towns, Ancestry has commissioned 80 works by contemporary artists.
Each piece is inspired by a real-life story from that time, and while some remember ordeals suffered, many others commemorate unexpected good news stories, and even the occasional comical anecdote.
We've selected some of the London-based pieces here:
A moment to breathe by Shana Lohrey. After hours of fire fighting, firemen stopped for a cigarette and light refreshment, 1940Lady Works Machineby Adébayo Bolaji. Miss Spize Hooker, once a singer and cabaret dancer, is now an employee at a Ministry of Supply munition factory, 1941Blitz Wedding by Megan Menzies. P. Kingsley-Thomas of the Merchant Navy was married during leave to Miss Gwyneth Evans in the ruins of the New Jewin Welsh Chapel, Aldersgate, 1944Tractor Boy by Nathan Bowen. 19 year old tows ten tonne lorries to safety from burning sheds with a tractor, 1941Trousers Bomb by Gareth Brown. 11-year-old Raymond Hawley, protected his family by removing a bomb with a pair of trousers from his home, throwing it out into their garden, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, 1940Unity by Tom Cox. Nurses and students of Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, help build a sandbag post for the protection of the 'Spotters', 1940East to West by Shana Lohrey. Homeless people from the East End to-day moved into a block of luxury flats in the West End, 1940Amputees by Danielle Simpson. Two members of WAAF with their nurse enjoying a stroll on crutches in the hospital grounds, 1941
You can see all 80 artworks — spanning the likes of Belfast, Coventry, Liverpool and Plymouth — here.
