Online search led to Sunderland "pierhead painters" find
A chance discovery on the Internet proved an interesting coincidence for Sunderland Museum's Keeper of History, Martin Routledge, after he noticed a watercolour of the battlecruiser, HMS Renown, for sale in Vancouver, Canada.
This ship is of special interest to Martin as his grandfather, Norman Routledge, served on board during the First World War.
Martin said: "While researching my family history, I obtained copies of my grandfather's RN service records. He became a Stoker Second Class on Renown during 1916, before promotion to First Class in 1917, a rank he held until his discharge in 1920."
The artist's name, J Middleton, also caught Martin's attention as Sunderland Art Gallery has two works by a person of the same name with an identical signature.
These paintings are known to be by John Middleton, a river policeman who served with the River Wear Watch between 1882 and 1917.
Born at Bishopwearmouth in 1852, he was a merchant seaman and railway porter before becoming a policeman. He died in 1936.
Martin said: "Although we have Middleton's paintings of the sailing ships Tay and Alma in the Art Gallery, I don't think we would purchase that of the Renown, as he is already represented and the ship is not of local significance."
Mainly producing ship portraits, Middleton was one of the "pierhead painters" active in the 19th and early 20th centuries, often being commissioned by ship owners and captains.
Although a dozen or so of his paintings are known to exist, Middleton's output is dwarfed by colleague, John Fannen, who painted scores of ships during his River Wear Police career from 1880 to 1904.
Why Middleton entitled his portrait of Renown "One of the mystery ships" is a mystery in itself! "Mystery ship" was used to describe the First World War Q-ships – armed merchant ships used as decoys to lure enemy submarines into making surface attacks.
HMS Renown was lead ship of a class of two 26,500 tons displacement battlecruisers, the other being HMS Repulse.
She was laid down at Govan in 1915 and launched in 1916. After completion, she served with the Grand Fleet in the North Sea.
Between 1919 and 1922, Renown embarked the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) on goodwill visits to the USA, Canada, Australasia and the Far East. (Middleton's painting is dated 1919, the year in which the ship arrived in Canada).
For the rest of the inter-war years, she served with the Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets, besides undergoing a series of refits.
The Second World War saw Renown engaged in numerous theatres of war, including the Norwegian campaign, at Gibraltar as Force H flagship and in the Far East. She was placed in reserve in 1946 and scrapped at Faslane in 1948.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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