'What would Lord Devonport Say', 1917

Pencil drawing by Lieutenant Ernest Stafford Carlos (1883-1917), 8th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), May 1917.

Two officers sit at a makeshift table eating hot food, with bottles of alcohol, whilst in the background to the right three others look on unimpressed. To the left an other rank brings more plates of hot food towards them and a cook can be seen at work.

The 'Lord Devonport' of the title refers to Hudson Ewbanke Kearly, 1st Viscount Devonport (1856-1934) who was Minister of Food Control from December 1916 to June 1917. With a poor harvest in 1916 and food imports to the United Kingdom disrupted by German U-Boats, Kearly, a grocer by trade, introduced a system of voluntary rationing.

The artist, Lieutenant E S Carlos was killed in action at Zillebeke during the Battle of Messines, on the 14 June 1917. He is buried at the Chester Farm Cemetery in Belgium.