Gross had been commissioned as an Official War Artist with the rank of Captain in 1941 and was sent, in November of that year, to record life on board the Highland Monarch, a Middle East convoy ship, around the coast of Africa. He arrived in Cairo in January 1942, and later followed the British Druze Cavalry and Camel Regiment through Jordan. The camaraderie of service life appealed to Gross and his unpublished journals record a trail of ‘piss ups and bean feasts’.

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