Lives of the First World War

A view down the beach at Suvla Bay with the sea to the left and a destroyer lying offshore. Boats filled with British troops land on the shore, and then make their way up the beach. In the foreground there is the body of a soldier who has been shot down lying face down in the sand. To the left are boxes of supplies stacked on the beach. There is a large cloud of grey smoke further down the beach, and soldiers moving towards the explosion

Norman Wilkinson CBE RI (24 November 1878 – 31 May 1971) was a British artist who usually worked in oils, watercolors and drypoint. He was primarily a marine painter, but he was also an illustrator, poster artist, and wartime camoufleur. Wilkinson invented "Dazzle Painting" to protect merchant shipping during World War I

Original IWM image caption: Lieutenant Commander Norman Wilkinson CBE. Unit: Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, HMNB Devonport. Death: 31 May 1971. | Norman Wilkinson (1878 - 1971) was a British artist who specialised in marine subjects. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and sang as a chorister with the choir of St Paul's Cathedral. Although he had little formal training as an artist, he started contributing artwork to The Illustrated News and The Illustrated Mail in 1898 and was well established as an illustrator, poster artist and painter in oils and watercolours by the outbreak of war in 1914. One of his paintings was lost on board the SS TITANIC. During the First World War, Wilkinson served with the Royal Navy in the Dardanelles, on submarine patrol in the Mediterranean and on a minesweeper in the English Channel. Although he was not an official war artist, he continued to produce works of art during his naval service and made an important contribution to the dazzle camouflage scheme. Wilkinson was appointed Honorary Marine Painter to the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1919.