In his own words:

“The Queen Elizabeth class of battleship was probably the most innovative of any class of major warship. Designed in 1912, it broke new ground in, for example, the fact that it was the first battleship class to take 152 guns and its ships were oil fired . all of the ships were fitted and modernised through varying stages in their lives and , in particular, between 1934 and 1941. Th e HMS Queen Elizabeth, together with Warspite, and Valiant, were reconstructed more than any other British battleships, to the point where they were virtually unrecognisable from their original pre-war design.
In World War I, the class was famous for forming the 5th Battle Squadron in the Grand Fleet from 1915 – 1919 and HMS Queen Elizabeth herself was Fleet Flagship in 1917. She went to the Dardenelles in 1915 and then in World War II, she was almost never out of action, first on Atlantic escort duties and then her battle honours included the Malta convoys and the evacuation of Crete in May 1941. She was then involved in operations in the Indian Ocean and took part in operations against the Japanese in the Pacific during 1944. The class was regarded when built as being superior to all other battleships in the world and the Queen Elizabeth herself was scrapped in 1948 after a long and adventurous career.
Why is it these days that we are made almost to feel ashamed to be patriotic? It seems fashionable to sweep aside any symbol that represents Great Britain. I, for one, am proud to be British and I say so. We are living in an age of increasing conformity, becoming part of an ever larger international conglomerate of different countries and this means at the same time that we are surely in ever increasing danger of losing identity as an individual sovereign state.
It is with these increasing feelings of concern that I have for some time waned to paint a subject which conveys the period of time when the ‘Great’ in Great Britain had some significance, perhaps as a symbol of power of a once great maritime nation that has gone forever. In my painting , I have portrayed HMS Queen Elizabeth coming out under full power in a stormy sea from Weymouth on exercise during the period between 1927 and 1934. She is followed by her sisters, HMS Warspite and HMS Royal Sovereign.”

David Shepherd.

Image size: 24” wide x 13” high

All copies signed and numbered by the artist.

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850 – Signed and Numbered - £141inc vat (£120 +vat)
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Signed and Numbered print including off white acid free mount with french matt and blue line as illustrated below - £199.75inc vat (£170+vat)

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