Bawden was sent to join Middle East Command in 1940. The Command stretched from Iran to the Sudan, with the focus of activity in East Africa. Bawden arrived in Addis Ababa in May 1941, after sailing to Cape Town and flying to Cairo, he travelled down the Nile to Khartoum and then over the mountains and across the Blue Nile into Ethiopia. He left the country in September and on his way home Bawden’s ship was torpedoed and he spent five days in a lifeboat before being rescued by a warship from Vichy France. He was interned in Casablanca and freed two months later by the Americans.

This work was presented to the Collection by the War Artists' Advisory Committee.

Further reading:
Meirion and Susie Harries, The War Artists, Michael Jospeh in association with the Imperial War Museum and the Tate Gallery, London 1983