RAF CLUB PORTRAITS
Your trustees learned in April 2024 that the RAF Club’s Arts & Heritage Committee had commissioned portraits of Air Chief Marshals Lord Dowding and Sir Keith Park, both of Battle of Britain fame. These were to hang in the Club’s Churchill Bar, either side of the portrait of Sir
Winston Churchill and opposite the large action painting of an air battle entitled ‘The Few’ and presented to the Club by Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, himself a Cranwellian.
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The artist was to be Hazel Morgan, a noted portraitist who had offered to charge a reduced fee in honour of the subjects.
The Fighter Control Association and a member of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association had pledged to cover the costs of the Dowding portrait and half of the Park portrait.
Your trustees considered the Keith Park portrait to be a noble enterprise and agreed to grant the Club £3,600, the outstanding sum on the Park portrait, funded from a surplus in the Trenchard Statue Appeal.
The Unveiling ceremony took place on 9 September 2024, in the presence of the Artist, members of the Dowding and Park families, and representatives of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust & Fighter Association, the Fighter Control Association, the RAF Club and the New Zealand High Commission (Sir Keith was a New Zealander). Your Association was represented by our new President, Air Chief Marshal Sir Andy Pulford.
Take a look next time you are at the Club
