Artist dodged war service to avoid wearing khaki

A RENOWNED Scottish artist tried to duck military service in the First World War — because he didn’t like the colour of the uniform.

Colourist John Duncan Fergusson avoided the trenches on the Western Front by becoming the unofficial artist for the navy at Portsmouth Docks in the summer of 1918.

Fergusson, whose works are now housed in Perth, was put in the frame for conscription when the call-up age was raised in the final year of conflict.

The account of how he campaigned for a home posting features in a new batch of World War One at Home stories which will air on BBC Radio Scotland from June 23.

Alice Strang, senior curator at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, researched archive material about JD Fergusson for the series.

She said: “In the spring of 1918, the upper age limit for enlistment was raised to 51, so for the first time Fergusson was eligible for active service. He was classed Grade A1 fitness at his test.

“He really did everything he could to avoid being sent to France.

“Fergusson came very close to being conscripted into the army and in fact his partner, the dance pioneer Margaret Morris, said he didn’t want to join the army because he didn’t like the khaki colour of the uniform.”

Albert Yockney, of the British War Memorials Committee at the Ministry of Information, was fundamental to keeping Fergusson away from the trenches and on behalf of the artist he petitioned a commodore in theAdmiralty.

The Admiralty replied that “it has no objection” to Fergusson going to Portsmouth to “gather impressions for painting a picture”, although it fell short of making him an official artist.

The latest round of World War One at Home stories also features Dundee poet, Joseph Lee, who was once ranked alongside Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon but has since largely fallen out of public consciousness. Lee, who served with the Black Watch, continued to write poems and produce sketches even during his imprisonment by the Germans in 1917.

It is thought his fame did not endure because he was more of a people’s poet than an anti-war poet and stopped writing poetry when he returned home.

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Picture: Dougie Nicolson. The car which ended up in the river underneath the South Bridge, Cupar.