A half-length portrait to left wearing the uniform and cap of the Peninsular and Orient Steam Navigation Company’s Service. The sitter looks out of the picture space to meet the gaze of the viewer. He has a pipe in his mouth and is about to strike a match.

Easton was awarded the B.E.M. in 1942 for his part in an action against the enemy while he was in the S.S.’Norkunda’. She was bombed and sunk during the North African landings on 14 November 1942, for which he was awarded the DSM in 1943. Walter Easton retired from P&O in 1954.
The artist, Bernard Hailstone, trained at Goldsmiths and the Royal Academy Schools. At the start of the Second World War, he joined the Auxiliary Fire Service and painted some of the scenes he witnessed during the London Blitz. In 1941 the War Artists Advisory Committee commissioned him to paint civilian defence subjects. Released from the fire service, he moved to Hull in 1943. He continued work in the Mediterranean and North Africa before joining South East Asia Command, where he painted Lord Mountbatten.