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Portrait of Leading Seaman A.L. Vearncombe of HMS Vernon
In November 1939 the sitter helped to defuse, for the first time, a German Type GA Magnetic mine founded beached off Shoeburyness. The following month Vearncombe was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his cool bravery by King George VI. Indeed, he was the first Royal Navy sailor from the ranks to be personally decorated by King George VI. HMS Vernon was the Royal Navy’s Mine and Torpedo School at Portsmouth.
In his illustrated booklet Pilots, Workers, Machines (published October 1941) Kennington wrote of the ‘Devonian’ Vearncombe, c.June 1941, that: ‘with brass tools and great courage [he] unscrewed the first magnetic mine, de-detonated it whilst, through a microphone, he told dispassionately the secrets of its construction.’
Above information supplied by Dr Jonathan Black, 16 June 2009.
In his illustrated booklet Pilots, Workers, Machines (published October 1941) Kennington wrote of the ‘Devonian’ Vearncombe, c.June 1941, that: ‘with brass tools and great courage [he] unscrewed the first magnetic mine, de-detonated it whilst, through a microphone, he told dispassionately the secrets of its construction.’
Above information supplied by Dr Jonathan Black, 16 June 2009.
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Object Details
| ID: | ZBA4943 |
|---|---|
| Type: | Drawing |
| Display location: | Not on display |
| Creator: | Eric H. Kennington |
| Date made: | 1940 |
| Credit: | National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1947 |
| Measurements: | Frame: 791 mm x 570 mm x 33 mm Pastel: 746 x 524 x 4 |
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