William Dring (1904-90) earned his reputation as a fine draughtsman and portrait painter whilst studying under Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Art between 1922 and 1925. He worked as a teacher of drawing and painting at the Southampton School of Art until 1940 when he was employed by the War Artist Advisory Committee, first as official war artist to the Admiralty and later to the Air Ministry. He made a large number of portrait drawings of individuals and groups, all remarkable for their informality. Dring travelled extensively to complete his commissions. The drawing is always precise and carefully modelled using pastel, a medium in which he specialised, and which allowed him to capture the likeness and spirit of his subjects quickly and under a variety of circumstances.

The pastel shows two officers, identified by the daughter of the former as Lieutenant EJP Fenn (left) and Lieutenant MR Mills (right), RNVR, on the bridge of the minesweeper MMS1007. Both men were appointed to this vessel, as second and first in command in 1943, and were transferred to other minesweepers in 1945.