This oil on canvas painting was executed in 1944 by Molly Joan Lamb, then a lance corporal in the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC). A former student of Jack L. Shadbolt at the Vancouver School of Art, she enlisted in November 1942 and, from the beginning of her army career, kept a diary which she illustrated with drawings, often humourous, of herself and her buddies and their daily adventures as they adapted to army life. It did not take long for the army to discover her artistic gifts. She was briefly employed drawing educational cartoons for army trades training pamphlets, and for over a year painting scenery and designing costumes for the Army Show. In the spring of 1944, her painting Meal Parade tied for second place in -the Canadian Army Art Exhibition at the National Gallery, Ottawa. Colonel Margaret Eaton, Director General, CWAC, pressured for Molly Lamb's appointment as an official war artist (army). This was finally effected after Victory in Europe (VE) Day, and after Lamb had received her commission as a second lieutenant. Until her discharge in May 1946, she toured England and Northwest Europe to record in oil, watercolour, and ink the activities of the CWAC. In December 1945, she married another of the army's official war artists, Captain Bruno J. Bobak.
The subject of this painting, the gas drill, formed part of the basic training of all members of CWAC: they were issued gas masks and then marched through a gas-filled chamber. For some former members, the experience remains one of their most vivid memories.
Courtesy: Canadian War Museum, National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada (S83-9)
