Some of the finest work of modern British art was produced during the second world war. Many women were amongst the artists officially commissioned to record the Blitz and travel through Europe to record its devastation first-hand. One, Doris Zinkeisen, was the first civilian to arrive at Belsen after its liberation by the Allies. They also painted land girls back home, the women in factories, in the ATS + the Red Cross, all stepping into the breach to keep the country going. I will introduce you to some new names based on my interviews with several of the self-effacing but very talented people who found their paintings shown at the National Gallery, while all its other masterpieces were hidden away in the slate mines of Snowdonia. While Myra Hess’s morale boosting concerts took place there throughout the war, the Recording Britain and War Artists Advisory Committee schemes meant that artists were guaranteed employment, and our national collections would inherit work of great historical and propaganda interest, much of which is not often on display.