Nocturnal Putters

Roger Gamelyn Pettiward was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He first studied agriculture but then turned to art, studying in Vienna, at the Slade and in Paris. He travelled widely and in 1932 accompanied Peter Fleming in an expedition to Brazil to look for the missing explorer, Colonel Fawsett, an expedition described in Fleming’s Brazilian Adventure. He painted witty, quirky and humorous subjects and exhibited at the Leicester Galleries, New English Art Club, Royal Society of British Artists and elsewhere. Under the name of “Paul Crum”, Pettiward contributed cartoons and drawings to various publications including Punch, Bystander and the Sunday Express. Pettiward was killed while leading a commando troop on German coast guns during the allied attack on Dieppe in August 1942. A Memorial Exhibition of his paintings and drawings was held at the Leicester Galleries in 1943. The Last Cream Bun, a collection of his drawings was published in 1984. Paintings by him are in the collection of the Royal Air Force Museum and the UCL Art Museum, London.