The artist explains: 'Arthur was a familiar figure in the streets near my studio in Battersea in south London, which is how I got to know him. Usually he was pushing a supermarket trolley full of old dressing-up clothes. Sometimes he’d be wearing a Santa Claus outfit and blowing a bugle. I button-holed him and asked if l could paint his picture. We got to know each other as I painted several pictures of him. He didn’t always make much sense and had obviously not been very well for some time. He spoke about the war and about his job as a cook in the army. He also talked in a confused way about the terrible suffering he’d seen, and how he was going to fight on and not give up. He didn’t get close to people, but he let me visit his flat, which was full of things he had hoarded over the years: old bicycles, carpets, books and piles and piles of rubbish.