In February 1944 Bawden accompanied the Middle East Anti-Locust Unit on an expedition across Saudi Arabia from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. A swarm of biblical proportions was expected to threaten food supplies and an international group of British, Sudanese and Palestinian experts was assembled to locate and destroy the locusts’ breeding grounds.

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