Overall: 47cm (18.5in) x 39cm (15.3in)
Provenance: Major-General F.A.M.B. Jenkins DSO, OBE, MC, 2nd Punjab Regiment (1891-1986)
Watercolour on paper. Head and shoulders wearing pugaree with gold fringed shamla of regimental pattern, field service shirt with 1936 India General Service Medal ribbon. Signed and dated ‘Harry Sheldon 45’ lower left. Sheet: 35cm x 26cm. Framed and glazed.
Harry Sheldon (1923–2002) was a figurative artist, stained glass designer and draughtsmen. Born in Marple, Cheshire, he studied at Manchester School of Art and Salford Technical School under L S Lowry. In 1943 while waiting to be invalided home from Karachi Military Hospital, Sheldon, a captain in the 8th Gurkha Rifles, was having a solo show of work which was seen by General (later Field Marshal) Sir Claude Auchinleck, then the Commander-in-Chief India. The C-in-C, also a keen painter, persuaded Sheldon to stay on to paint officially. The result was a series of portraits of Indian Army personnel including Victoria Cross holders now held by the Gurkha Museum, Winchester, and Indian Army and Pakistani military museum collections. In 1944 he contributed illustrations for the regimental history of the 8th Gurkhas by Colonel F.H. Willasey-Wilsey.