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Notes
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Fildes joined the Royal Navy in 1906 and was a midshipman. In 1912, as a lieutenant, he joined the cruiser ‘Natal’ and was serving in her when war was declared with Germany in 1914. On 30 December 1915 she was lying in Cromarty Firth and Fildes was officer of the watch during an afternoon party for local children. The ship blew up and sank causing great loss of life. Fildes was badly burned but survived. In March 1916 he was back in service, in the torpedo-boat-destroyer ‘Mermaid’. In 1917 he was Physical Training Officer in the ‘Minotaur’, First Lieutenant of the ‘Diligence’ in 1919, and finally a Lieutenant Commander in the battle cruiser ‘Australia’ when she set out to join the Australian navy in 1922. He was then retired with a disability pension, but during the Second World War served as port officer at Harwich and Suez. In civilian life he followed his father’s profession as a portrait painter. One of his commissions was a full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip for the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.
Title
Lieutenant Commander Denis Quentin Fildes (1889–1975)
Date
1912
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 76.2 x W 57.1 cm
Accession number
BHC2353
Work type
Painting