David McFall R.A. (1919 - 1988)

Sculptor

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1956/4 "The Debutante"

Portrait bust

Bronze

The sitter was Madeleine Drage then aged 17

Sister of ballerina Mary Drage, youngest daughter of Commander*

& Mrs. Charles Drage

The work was modelled in 7 sittings from 26/1/1956 to 23/2/1956

Reference: The Tatler & Bystander March 28 1956 page 553

*Charles Drage worked for MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, from 1933 when he was posted to Hong Kong with the primary responsibility for Japanese military intelligence. In 1940 he moved to Singapore before returning to Hong Kong. In January 1942 he was posted to Calcutta after the fall of Hong Kong and Singapore.

MI6 The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909 - 1949. Keith Jefferey. Bloomsbury.

The papers of Charles Harding Drage (1897 - 1983) are in the Imperial War Museum.  Summary: Extremely well-written and perceptive diaries covering his naval career, January 1914 - July 1933. The diaries, which are in seven volumes, relate particularly to his service as a midshipman in HMS London, August 1914 - October 1916, including operations at the Dardanelles and with the British Adriatic Squadron; as a Lieutenant in HMS Cochrane (2nd Cruiser Squadron), January 1917 - November 1918, on North Atlantic blockade duties and convoys and then in North Russian water in 1918; in HMS Thunderer (2nd Battle Squadron, Grand Fleet), January - July 1919; in HMS Cardiff (3rd Light Cruiser Squadron) on the Mediterranean Station, December 1920 - January 1923, a commission dominated by the unstable situation in Turkey; in the sloop Bluebell on the China Station, October 1923 - January 1926, protecting British interests; at the Admiralty in a temporary staff appointment during the General Strike, May 1926; as a Lieutenant-Commander in the battlecruiser Renown for her world cruise with the Duke and Duchess of York, September 1926 - September 1927; at the Naval Staff College where he prepared a paper on modern naval mutinies, October 1927 - October 1928; as Staff Officer (Operations) to the C-in-C East Indies in the cruiser Effingham, January 1929 - February 1931; in the Atlantic Fleet battleship Valiant, January - December 1931, with long entries covering the Invergordon mutiny in September; and in the Renown again, March 1932 - July 1933, in Home waters and the Mediterranean.

Published: Two-Gun Cohen (1954); Chindwin to Criccieth: the life of Godfrey Drage (1956); The amiable Prussian (1958); William King's profession (1960); General of fortune : the story of One-Arm Sutton (1963); Servants of the Dragon Thone : being the lives of Edward and Cecil Bowra (1966); Family story : the Drages of Hatfield (1969); Taikoo (1970); The Poon (1971).

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