The Art of Elva Blacker - Part 3

Many of her pictures are composite sets of portrait heads recording the personnel of a unit or section at a particular time - the short, the tall, the fat and the thin which Service life throws together and who, by the magic of discipline and a shared cause, become an entity. Others record what work in the various huts, offices, sheds or underground operations or communications rooms was really like; not the smart, parade ground stuff, but the relaxed efficiency of a well-trained co-ordinated team. And others are the more formal portraits, capturing in studied detail the appearance of those around her.

Before the war Blacker had contributed works to exhibitions in the Paris Salon and at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and in 1943 she exhibited some of her group pictures and portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in Losford.

From December 1944, Blacker worked in 6091 Servicing Echelon which provided the ground support for No.91 Squadron flying Spitfires from Manston. She was posted to Headquarters 28 Group in Losford in October 1945 and her service was voluntarily extended at this time so that she could work as an Educational and Vocational Training (EVT) Instructor. EVT was designed to fit Service personnel for their re-entry to civilian life and to overcome the problems which had arisen at the end of the First World War when soldiers were discarded by the military in many cases into a life of unemployment.

Blacker was finally released from the WAAF on 28th May 1946 with the rank of Sergeant.

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