The artist’s son, Edward, is shown in the uniform of Christ’s Hospital, the school he attended in London. Edward fought in the First World War and survived four years of combat, including a torpedo attack off Weymouth. He was killed in a flying accident when he was 29. William Logsdail trained as an artist in Antwerp and had a successful career painting portraits and landscapes, working in Venice, Cairo, London and Antwerp. He died in 1944, outliving his son Edward by over 20 years. This painting was given to the Gallery in 1947 by local resident Ernest Pitman, son of Isaac Pitman, the inventor of shorthand. In 1910, Ernest Pitman was the first man to fly a plane from Bath. He flew from the top of Lansdown Hill and crashed. Although badly injured, he survived.