The Gow Brothers, 1914

The sister of the artist Andrew Carrick Gow (1848–1920), Mary Lousia Gow was a watercolourist who specialised in figure and genre subjects. In the present drawing, Gow depicts her three nephews: Andrew (1887-1978, centre), James (1890-1929, right) and Roderick (1893-1916, left). Roderick, or 'Roddy', was the youngest and is depicted holding a naval White Ensign, a hero's laurel leaves by his feet, slightly separated from his two older brothers. This tragically foreshadowed what was to come for the boy, as he was killed while serving on the Acheron-class destroyer HMS Defense, during the Battle of Jutland, in 1916.