Portrait.

Drawing, previously listed as 'Capt C.T.M. Pizey'. Mark Pizey, the son of a Somerset clergyman, had a long and distinguished naval career first serving as a midshipman in the battleship 'Revenge', 1916-18, in the First World War. He became a lieutenant in 1920 and as a commander in the years before 1939, when he was promoted captain, was a commander in destroyers. From 1940 to 1942 he commanded the 21st Destoyer Flotilla in HMS Campbell (Nore Command) in Channel and North Sea Operations, mainly out of Harwich, being awarded the CB and DSO in 1942, and twice mentioned in despatches. On 12 February 1942 he led the flotilla against the 'Scharnhorst' and 'Gneisenau' off the Dutch coast in the later stages of their successful 'Channel dash' from Brest to Wilhelmshaven. The risks taken included crossing minefields off the Maas as well as closing with the superior enemy ships to fire torpedoes. As with the air assaults, their were no torpedo hitsand only HMS 'Worcester' was serously damaged by enemy fire, but his part in the affair was approved in the subsequent analysis of failure to stop the two battleships. In 1942-3 he commanded HMS Tyne and was Chief Staff Officer to Rear-Admiral Destroyers, Home Fleet, in defence of the Russian convoys. A series of staff appointments followed both before and after he became rear-admiral in 1948, flag officer commanding the First Cruiser Squadron, 1950–51 and vice-admiral, 1951. In 1951-55 he served as Chief of Naval Staff and Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Navy, being promoted to admiral in 1954. His final appointment before retirement to his native Somerset was Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth. He was knighted (KBE) in 1953 and advanced to GBE in 1957. This drawing bears the pencilled number LD4997, showing it was done for the War Artists Advisory Committee, presumably after Pizey's part in the events of February 1942. This was either when Monnington was part of the Ministry of Defence's camouflage team (1939-43), mainly designing camouflage for aircraft production airfields or in 1943-44 when he flew as an official war artist with a Yorkshire training squadron and later with light Mitchell bombers over Germany. Though he had been well-known for such portraits in the 1930s his work in this area had faltered by the time the war started in favour of a greater interest in landscape and technical subjects. [PvdM 2/15]