Rowland Langmaid RA. AB.
1897 - 1956

Rowland Langmaid was born on the 1st December 1897 and died in Calle de la Bolsa, Malaga,
Spain 11th February 1956. Lieutenant Commander Rowland John Robb Langmaid studied under
W.L. Wyllie. He served in the Royal Navy in both wars and for most of World War Two was
stationed at the shore-based HMS Nile in Alexandria where he was appointed artist to the
Mediterranean Fleet by Admiral Cunningham. The National Maritime Museum has seventeen of
Langmaid's wartime paintings although he is perhaps better known for his etchings which include
naval, yachting and other maritime subjects. He was the eldest son of Captain J Langmaid, who was
an engineer in the Royal Navy. Langmaid joined the Royal Navy in 1910 and went to sea at the
beginning of the First World War serving at the Dardenelles in HMS "Agamemnon" where he made
official sketches for landings.During the World War I era Lieutenant Rowland Langmaid, R.N., made
a series of etchings to accompany the poem,The Rules of the Navy which was published. After the
war Rowland Langmaid studied at the Royal Academy School and the Royal College of Art. He held
exhibitions at the Royal Academy and in London, New York, and Paris. Langmaid was a highly
accomplished engraver as well as a painter in oil and watercolour with a style similar to the famous
marine artist W L Wyllie with whom he collaborated in Sea Fights of the Great War, 1914-18.
Langmaid returned to the Active List in 1939 in the rank of Lieutenant Commander and served as
official Admiralty artist to the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet from 1941 to 1943.