Trained at Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts and at the Royal College of Art in London, at the outbreak of the First World War, John Charles Wood Heath volunteered for service in the army, rising from private in the Coldstream Guards to Staff Officer (Camouflage). He saw action in Italy in 1943 and was injured on Queen’s Beach in the Normandy Landing on 6 June 1944, and evacuated. This drawing, entitled ‘In the last light of D-Day a medical DUKW takes us to the Hospital ship’, illustrates his experience then.
In his postings Heath was involved in the training of all arms in Camouflage and Deception and the establishment of Schools of Camouflage. He was demobilized in 1946, awarded the King’s Medal for Disabled Servicemen, and granted the honorary title of captain. The same year, he moved to South Africa, where he spent the rest of his life and career, teaching art.