War was declared on 3rd September1939. Within days Richard was learning to milk cows at the local dairy farm.
He was scheduled to have a December show at the Redfern but Nan Kivell got in touch asking him to have it in November as "no one else is having one”.
In Southampton the ships were all being painted dark grey and the place was full of troops ready to go to France. Richard dug an air raid shelter in the garden as part of the regulations for Mavis’ little school. (Insert Crispin’s ‘air raid shelter’)
In January 1940 he was ‘making observations of a scene of barrage balloons on Southampton Water, all to be done from memory owing to restrictions.’ The WAAC (War Artists Advisory Committee) commissioned him for the first time on April 1st: for “a couple of pictures for £50 the pair, of fishing boats!”
On 4th May he sold ‘Antwerp’ to the Tate for 100 guineas and also ‘December, Work Suspended’ to Hull for 200 gns.
The WAAC was pleased with the two pictures he had produced for them and he asked if he could paint the embarkation of Dunkirk. They had already commissioned another artist but agreed on 5th July to pay Richard 50 gns to paint this subject. The ministry had hardly any photographs to help him, but he started painting nevertheless. After that he was commissioned to paint an air battle over Portland, and in December was officially appointed war artist to the Admiralty. A succession of commissions followed and meanwhile he was digging the garden and producing lots of vegetables for the family.
In February 1942 a daughter Caroline was born. Mavis had had a nervous breakdown during pregnancy on hearing of the sudden death of her sister, and suffered post-natal depression for many weeks. Rex from the Redfern Gallery was asked to be Caroline’s godfather and was pleased to accept.
In April Richard was elected ARA (Associate of the Royal Academy).
In the midst of all the pressure of the war work Richard was painting a few pictures for his own edification. 'Framing is a problem as professional framing is not allowed. So I am either cutting old ones down, or making them out of odds and ends of scrap wood from the Power Boat Co.’ It is amusing to think of him driving to London with large works for the Admiralty tied to the roof of his small Austin car. Still short of money he and Mavis started keeping chickens.
In the autumn of 1943 he painted a picture for a friend’s son of a train, which Crispin stated was the best picture he had done! This gave him the idea for an exhibition of pictures for children at the Redfern. At the end of February 1944 he mentioned the idea to them: 'Saw Rex at the Redfern . . I showed him some of the paintings for children, he likes them but doesn’t want them at the Gallery as they would only sell!’
Richard continued working on his commissions for the WAAC. On June 6th 1944, D-Day, he wrote: ' Started work on Invasion Preparations (30x50) Everything very quiet here! No restrictions.’ The end of the War was in sight. However later that month he noted: 'Moved Caroline’s cot to under the stairs as there are so many alerts . . . Painting all day but tired from lack of sleep. Rain after long drought!’ But out of this all came one of his major pieces, The D-Day Reconstruction triptych, which allowed his imagination some leeway.
December 1944 saw the birth of their daughter Joanna, but spring 1945 brought two tragedies. Richard’s father died in February and barely two weeks later little Joanna died of meningitis. Richard wrote to the Admiralty to apologise for his delay in delivering the paintings they were expecting.