ARMED FORCES ART SOCIETY
The Armed Forces Art Society was founded in 1925 as The Army Officers’ Art Society when Royal Navy and Royal Air Force officers could only exhibit by invitation. From the beginning the standards were high as the Society included professional artists whose careers had been interrupted by active service during the First World War. It was inactive during the Second World War and was reformed in 1947 as the Army Art Society and all ranks were eligible to exhibit and the title The Armed Forces Art Society was adopted in 1964. Today the Society is open to skilled amateur and professional painters and sculptors with Members and Associate Members coming from all ranks of the three Services, both serving, retired and the Reserves and their spouses. Exhibitions have always taken place in central London, initially at the Mall Galleries, for several years at the National Army Museum, then at Painters’ Hall in the City before returning to the Mall Galleries in 2001. Suffolk artists who exhibited with the Armed Forces Art Society include Douglas Paul Farthing, Roger Fisher, George Ernest Hale, John Beauchamp Oakes, Robin Ollington and Jeremy Rugge-Price.