Lieutenant Richard Barrett Talbot Kelly, 1915

Portrait photograph of Lieutenant Richard Barrett Talbot Kelly MBE, MC, RI (1896-1971), Royal Field Artillery, 1915-17.

As part of an 18-pounder gun battery crew, Talbot Kelly took part in many of the major offensives of the Western Front, including the Battle of Loos (1915), the Battle of the Somme (1916) and the Battle of Arras (1917) and the Battle of Passchendaele (1917). He regularly served as a Forward Observation Officer (FOO), tasked with spotting where the artillery shells were landing. The unique vantage point of the battlefields that this job gave him, inspired him to draw his experiences.

In the 1930s he became an acclaimed water-colour painter, known for his paintings of birds.