Page 65 - The Cormorant 2018

The Cormorant Club 70th Anniversary Painting – ‘Cormorant Spirit’ Lieutenant Colonel (Ret’d) Chris Parker MBE – Cormorant Club Committee Member
TO COMMEMORATE THE 70TH Anniversary of the Cormorant Club, our Committee was keen to mark this special occasion
with a lasting gift for the Joint Services Command and Staff College. With funds fortunately being in good order, there was a
chance to create something to reflect both the original and modern ideals of the Cormorant Club. We settled on a modern painting; one to show the true spirit and friendship of the Club, both international and enduring. The JSCSC Forum lent itself well as the flags and scale show real modernity and we agreed that a portrayal of a pre-dinner night gathering provides a fondly memorable spectacle. It combines traditional British Military Dress imagery with our international and civilian friends’ unique styles, all in the setting of today’s renowned JSCSC. David Rowlands, the famous war artist, was commissioned to capture the scene and so he visited the College, took photos and produced sketches. The final perspective was approved and the real work commenced.
The Committee supported the artist’s work over four months by hosting visits and providing minutiae details on mess kits to ensure a proper representation of around one hundred of today’s diverse JSCSC cohort. Intentionally, no one has a precise ‘portrait’, but the generic representation is there for all parties: Civilians, International Staff and Students, plus the UK’s own diverse group. It was unveiled at the major ‘RAF 100’ Dinner at JSCSC
by Colonel (Ret’d) Audrey Smith, one of our longest serving Members who was a pioneer as the first female officer to undertake many key posts in her long career.
The result is a tremendous success and this fine painting, now positioned in the Street of the Teaching
“
Wing, will be viewed by generations of Staff and Students at the College as they go about their
daily business. It serves as a frequent reminder of the Cormorant Club relationships made here that serve us all so well in our lives afterwards – the very essence of our ‘Cormorant Spirit’.
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...the very
essence of our ‘Cormorant
Spirit’... ◆◆◆