HMS Vanguard: Royal Navy Ship of the 1960s (Original)

Artist: 20th Century unidentified artist
Medium: Watercolour on Board
Size: 6" x 4" (140mm x 110mm)
Date: c. 1965
Code: 20thCruiser

This is the unique original Watercolour painting by 20th Century unidentified artist.

Believed to be the Battleship HMS Vanguard, the last Royal Navy battleship ever built. Started during WWII, she was not commissioned until after the war ended. By this time it was obvious that battleships were obsolete as aircraft carriers became the new capital ships.

The only time she ever fired her guns "in anger" was during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956. She was laid up and mothballed and later scrapped. It's a shame she wasn't preserved as the last of her kind as she was the most advanced RN battleship ever built ... but already obsolete.

Probably painted for the mid 1960s era Look and Learn magazine when the front cover consisted of assorted paintings as part of a quiz.