GEORGE V - BIRLEY, Oswald.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Large presentation mezzotint portrait, signed. A superb print of a portrait commissioned from Oswald Birley by the Royal Yacht Squadron when the king became their admiral and patron in 1910. The portrait fittingly shows him in a rattan yacht armchair, with his sailing cap and telescope on an ottoman beside him. It is signed in the lower margin by both the king and the engraver. This print comes from the estate of Admiral Martin Dunbar-Nasmith (1883-1965), who won the Victoria Cross for his command of submarine E11 in the Dardanelles.George (1865-1936), the second child of Edward VII, was destined for a naval career. In 1877, he joined the training ship HMS Britannia with his elder brother Albert Victor. He served continuously until 1892, rising to the rank of captain through merit, and maintained a keen interest in naval affairs throughout his life. This nautical image is very fitting for the recipient, one of the great naval heroes of the First World War, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his service in submarine E11 during the Dardanelles campaign. Churchill praised his actions, stating, "one submarine alone - E11 - three times passed and re-passed through the terrible dangers of the tenfold minefields, of the Nagara net, and of the long vigilantly guarded reaches of the Dardanelles, remained in the Marmora ninety-six days (forty-seven in one spell) and sunk single-handed 101 vessels, including a battleship, a modern destroyer and three gunboats. This prodigious feat o

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