19 Facts About Cuthbert Orde

Captain Cuthbert Julian Orde was an artist and First World War pilot.

Cuthbert Orde is best known for his war art, especially his portraits of Allied Battle of Britain pilots.

Cuthbert Orde's parents were Sir Julian Walter Orde and Alice Georgiana Orde of Hopton House, Hopton, Norfolk.

Cuthbert Orde was an early member of the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom, serving on its committees as early as 1909.

Cuthbert Orde served throughout the First World War, starting by becoming a second lieutenant in the Army Service Corps on 15 August 1914.

Cuthbert Orde was a lieutenant when he qualified as a pilot for the Royal Flying Corps in a Maurice Farman biplane on 10 May 1916.

Cuthbert Orde was a captain by time of his application for the medal in December 1917.

Cuthbert Orde was given the rank of temporary major on 16 August 1918.

Cuthbert Orde relinquished his commission on 15 January 1919 on grounds of ill health, and retained the rank of captain.

Cuthbert Orde was shot down and listed as missing on 14 March 1916.

Cuthbert Orde was taken prisoner and held until the end of the war.

Cuthbert Orde died on 6 August 1920 in a flying accident on Salisbury Plain.

Cuthbert Orde was selected either by Group Headquarters or by the station commander and, generally speaking, four or five in each squadron were chosen, the four or five who were considered the most valuable.

Cuthbert Orde usually created monochrome pictures of the men using charcoal and white chalk, though some colour portraits were painted, such as that of Bob Stanford Tuck and a second portrait of Sailor Malan.

Cuthbert Orde remained a professional artist, and was still taking commissions for military portraits long after the war, such as one of Air Chief Marshal Sir James Robb in 1958.

Cuthbert Orde was an inaugural painter-member of the Society of Aviation Artists, formed in 1955.

Cuthbert Orde's work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Cuthbert Orde married Lady Eileen Wellesley, daughter of Arthur Wellesley, 4th Duke of Wellington, on 11 September 1916 at St Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield, London.

Cuthbert Orde died in London almost thirty years after her husband in May 1997, aged 89.