Michael Torrens-Spence won many decorations during wartime service in the Mediterranean as a pilot with the Fleet Air Arm, and in the course of his career he held commissions in the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. In November 1940, when in the aircraft carrier ‘Illustrious’ he played a daring part in the Swordfish raid on Taranto, and in the following spring he played an even more significant role before the naval action off Cape Matapan by torpedoing the Italian cruiser ‘Pola’. In his autobiography ‘War in a Stringbag’, Charles Lamb observed of Torrens-Spence that his ‘innate nervousness always forced him to press home his attacks to a suicidal degree …’.

He wears commander’s undress uniform, 1921 onwards, with pilot wings. The portrait is signed and dated ‘Lamb44’.

Henry Taylor Lamb (1883–1960) was encouraged in his artistic talent at school in Manchester, but ultimately attended medical school with a scholarship. He put aside university and his career in medicine, however, to study art in London with Augustus John and William Orpen in 1905. The particular influence of John is evident in his early work. A founding member of the Campden Town Group and the London Group, he painted an acclaimed portrait of Lytton Strachey and later, Evelyn Waugh. At the beginning of the First World War, Lamb returned to medicine, qualifying in July 1916 and served as a medical officer until he was gassed and invalided home. He was an official war artist attached to the Army during the Second World War, painting portraits of servicemen and foreign military attachés.