Sydney Knowles Sold at Auction Prices

ATTRIBUTED TO SYDNEY KNOWLES (BRITISH, 1921-2012)

ATTRIBUTED TO SYDNEY KNOWLES (BRITISH, 1921-2012) X Men detaching a warhead Oil on board Inscribed in pencil to verso 'Taken from Lay Apart Store / HMS Vernon / Painted by S. Knowles..' 18¼ x 21½in. (46.5 x 54.5cm.) A similar painting signed by Knowles is located in the Historic Diving Museum, Alverstoke. At the outbreak of WWII Knowles was serving as a stoker and, as such, took part in Operation Pedestal (the relief of Malta). In 1942 he joined the Underwater Working Party under the direction of Lt Cmdr Lionel "Buster" Crab, based in Gibraltar. Their main responsibility was to check for limpet mines left on allied shipping by Italian frogmen and manned torpedo men who were very skilled - Knowles was played by Michael Craig in the 1958 film The Silent Enemy which is about this unusual theatre of the War. In 1955 Crab took him to survey the Russian cruiser Sverdlov during a visit to Britain, a year later Crab disappeared in controversial circumstances diving alone on her sister ship, the Ordzhonikidze. ++Needs a clean.