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John Godfrey Bernard Worsley was one of the very few service artists and the only person to render contemporary sea-warfare in situ. He had joined the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the Second World War and served on HMS Laurentic, HMS Lancaster and HMS Devonshire. His painting of the sinking HMS Laurentic was based on sketches he made while in one of her lifeboats.

In November 1943 Lieutenant John Worsley accompanied Allied saboteurs to an island in the Adriatic Sea, but their boat was intercepted and he was taken prisoner. While in the PoW camp Marlag-O near Bremen, he documented the prison life and his expertise employed in the forging of identity papers, and an ingenious escape attempt requiring the construction of a mannequin named Albert R.N..