Stephen Martin Lanigan O'Keeffe
1 of 6 portraits of Stephen Martin Lanigan O'Keeffe
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Stephen Martin Lanigan O'Keeffe
by Bassano Ltd
bromide print, 3 October 1940
8 in. x 6 in. (204 mm x 152 mm) overall
Purchased, 1996
Photographs Collection
NPG x84418
Sitterback to top
- Stephen Martin Lanigan O'Keeffe (1878-1948), High Commissioner in London for South Rhodesia 1935-46. Sitter in 6 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Bassano Ltd (active 1901-1962), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 42746 portraits.
Events of 1940back to top
Current affairs
Following the German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium and France, Neville Chamberlain resigns and Churchill is appointed Prime Minister making the famous speech: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.'The Battle of Britain ends the Phoney War with Germany's attack on the nation from the air. Britain's cities, airbases and ports are bombed during the Blitz.
Art and science
With little access to sculpture materials, and a bombed out studio Henry Moore starts experimenting with drawings of war subjects. After taking shelter in a London Underground station during an air raid Moore was inspired to begin a series of Shelter Drawings. With a commission from the War Artists Advisory Committee, headed by Kenneth Clark, these became some of the most popular example of official war art.International
Britain's attempt to defend France against German invasion by landing troops on the French coast ends in failure; France surrenders and Britain is left to face the Axis Powers alone. While the Dunkirk Landings were a failure, the heroic rescue of troops by a fleet of English civilian boats was a victory for morale, and the 'Dunkirk Spirit' came to stand as an emblem of British triumph in adversity.Comments back to top
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Michael George Gee
14 February 2017, 01:25
The name Lanigan-O'keeffe came about in 1896 when Queen Victoria granted arms to the family when a Lanigan and an O'Keeffe married. The O'Keeffes were an old aristocratic Irish family. I believe that his brother John (an Engineer and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin who worked in Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Australia was the 'Chief of the Name' (defunct after Irish Independence) and the inheritor of the entailed estates.
Stephen settled in Rhodesia after the First World War where he became a landowner and MP during the 1930s. During the First war, I believe that he held a commission in the Army.
The family is also part of a legal tradition that continues to this day.