David Emmerson holds two of Riordon’s paintings, numbers 12 and 18 in the Convoy Series,  that he he purchased at auction in 2020. (Photo: Submitted)

Peter Mallett
Staff Writer for CFB Esquimalt Lookout

A retired financial services worker is on a mission to locate 13 missing paintings featuring Canadian warships in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Art enthusiast David Emmerson believes you or someone you know could be in possession of long-lost Battle of the Atlantic paintings by Lieutenant-Commander (LCdr) Eric Riordon, a Canadian Naval Reservist who served during the Battle of the Atlantic.

“It’s turned into a bit of an obsession for me, and I keep finding more and more clues and material,” Emmerson said.

LCdr Riordon joined the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in 1940 at the height of the Second World War. His wartime service inspired him to paint a series of 34 miniature naval scenes depicting typical trans-Atlantic convoy manoeuvres during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Emmerson’s fascination with the paintings began when he purchased two of the convoy series paintings at an auction in April 2020. He bought them because he liked the subject and their look.

“When I learned about the exhibition and the man behind the paintings, I started to wonder where the other 32 paintings and/or photographs of them were located…I had no idea what I was getting into.”

One of Emmerson’s favourite LCdr Riordon paintings is his fourth in the series. It features an RCN frigate at night during the Battle of the Atlantic.

“Riordon had a faculty for painting moonlight which is amply demonstrated here,” Emmerson said. “It is a beautiful calm picture but there is menace as well, knowing the U-Boats are about and can inflict death and destruction at any moment while the air of menace exists in the frigate itself as it is also a purpose-built killing machine.”

LCdr Riordon’s paintings were displayed and eventually sold after the North Atlantic Convoy Art Exhibit finished its tour in 1952, with many of their whereabouts still unknown.

Emmerson believes the post-war travelling exhibition had an immense impact on the many people across Canada who attended it more than 72 years ago.

“Many of these exhibition visitors would have been current and former navy personnel at the time,” he said. “Riordon had credibility with them as he himself was a veteran who served in North Atlantic convoys.”

Now, the art enthusiast operates an expansive website on LCdr Riordon: ericriordon.ca. It features biographical information and photographic imagery of the artist’s naval paintings. It was the next logical step in his efforts to unlock clues to the tantalizing mystery surrounding the paintings and their whereabouts. The website helped find another missing painting and one picture from the book “Canada’s War At Sea” three weeks ago; it was in the collection of a website visitor from the East Coast.

The sleuth is still on the hunt for the remaining paintings.

“The paintings could be displayed in someone’s home or business or have been stored away in an attic or basement,” Emmerson said.

Convoys on Artist Board

John Eric Benson Riordon was born in St. Catharines, Ont., Dec. 5, 1906, and moved with his family to Montreal two years later. A dropout at McGill University, he later attended art classes at La Grande Chaumière and Académie Julian in Paris from 1932 to 1934. He is more widely known for his landscape art featuring the Quebec wilderness and seascapes.

During his wartime service, LCdr Riordon’s ship, HMCS Kenora, engaged in anti-submarine warfare and protection of convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic. Riordon painted while on shore service. Most of his paintings were oil-based. He cut down 12” x 16” pieces of artist board into 6” x 8” panels.
He had a fondness for those small panels and painted many of his landscapes and naval paintings in that format and for two volumes of a book he was contributing to: Canada and the Sea, A Maritime History of Canada by Canadian author and humourist Stephen Leacock, and later Canada and The War at Sea by broadcaster and writer Leslie Roberts.

After the war, he held the rank of Lieutenant-Commander in the Naval Reserves. LCdr Riordon died in 1948.

Photo Gallery:

25B Depth Charge

7aa Tribal Class Destroyer

18a Moonlight Convoy

12a Convoy forming under air cover

Lieutenant-Commander Eric Riordon at his easel in 1947. (Photo: Submitted)