Lieutenant Rex Whistler
CAPTAIN REX WHISTLER © NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
Born in London in 1905, Rex Whistler was one of the most accomplished artists of his generation. His most famous work is the mural on the walls of the Rex Whistler Restaurant in the Tate Britain in London, but he worked on many other projects: from posters and stage set design to Wedgwood china, children’s book illustrations, and portrait painting.
At the outbreak of the Second World War he was 35 years old but nevertheless volunteered to serve. After training in England, he was deployed with the Welsh Guards to France during the Normandy Campaign. He volunteered to be the regimental burial officer and carried a stack of wooden crosses on the back of his tank.
HEADSTONE OF CAPTAIN REX WHISTLER © CWGC
On 18 July, Commonwealth forces in Normandy launched Operation Goodwood, one of the greatest tank operations of the Second World War. More than 1,400 tanks and tens of thousands of men were involved, including Rex and Welsh Guards. During the advance, the tracks of Rex’s tank became tangled in wire. Rex and his crew went to free the tank, but while out in the open a mortar round fell nearby, and Rex was killed instantly.
He was buried by his comrades near where he fell and in August 1945 he was laid to rest in Plot III. Row F. Grave 22 of CWGC Banneville-la-Campagne War Cemetery. His mother, Helen, wrote to the Commission in 1946 and requested the inscription for his headstone: ‘They shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day, when I make up my jewels’.
SECOND WORLD WAR CONTENTS:
Profiles People
Commemoration and Legacy
Artistic Responses to Conflict