page_title: Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-ring
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-ring / Background
caption_attribution_description: The Bofors 40 mm gun is a famous anti-aircraft autocannon designed by the Swedish firm of Bofors. It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, used by most of the western Allies as well as various other forces. It is often referred to simply as the Bofors gun.
context_page_description: Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech-ring is a 1943 painting by the British artist Laura Knight depicting a young woman, Ruby Loftus working at an industrial lathe cutting the screw of a breech-ring for a Bofors anti-aircraft gun. The painting was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee as part of the British war effort in the Second World War.
  Loftus was a 21-year-old woman who had quickly become an expert in the production of breech rings—in seven months, rather than the several years it normally took. The painting was commissioned to promote women's work in factories; women dominate the picture, and only one man is visible, in the background. When unveiled at the 1943 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the painting was extremely popular, and was voted the picture of the exhibition. The image was reproduced in a large-scale poster version by the WAAC for display in factories across the country.
context_section_description: During the Second World War the British government formed the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC) under the chairmanship of Sir Kenneth Clark, the director of the National Gallery. The committee was "to draw up a list of artists qualified to record the war at home and abroad". One of those commissioned on several occasions was the British painter Laura Knight, who had painted for the Canadian government during the First World War.
  Discontent within the factory workforce lead to strikes in the UK in the lead up to January 1943. According to the social research organisation Mass-Observation, women working in war production considered their abilities to be under used, and that potential employees perceived factory girls to be "low class, rough, dirty and immoral". Women, in particular, were more likely to be absent from work than men, with childcare and running the household the probable reasons, according to the art historian Brian Foss. With a shortage in the number of women working in the factories, the Ministry of Production pushed for the war artists to depict production workers.
  Knight was commissioned to paint Ruby Loftus in late 1942. She was a machine operator described by the Ministry of Supply as "an outstanding factory worker". Knight, who was working on A Balloon Site, Coventry, turned down the fee of 75 guineas, negotiating 100 guineas plus expenses; even the higher figure was, she said "infinitely lower than I should ask for any other work than that connected to the war". Knight offered to accept the 75 guinea fee, but only if it could be painted in the her studio.  The WAAC responded that, although they were grateful that she was working at a much lower level of fees than her pre-war rates, the policy was that all work commissioned was "on a virtually fixed scale of fees irrespective of the status of the artist". The committee added that as Loftus was too valuable to be released from the factory, they would agree to Knight's 100 guinea request; she travelled to Newport, Wales, to paint the portrait in situ over three weeks. The work was completed by the end of March.
  Loftus and her family moved to South Wales after their home in Golders Green was bombed. She was employed by the Royal Ordnance Factory in Newport (ROF Newport), having previously been an assistant at a tobacconist's shop in Finchley, London. In 1943 she was 21 years old and engaged to John Green, a corporal in the 11th Hussars. Loftus had no prior experience of heavy machinery or the industrial workplace, but she became highly skilled in seven months in making the breech ring of a Bofors anti-aircraft gun. This was the most complex task at ROF Newport and any lack of precision in forming the breech ring could result in the gun being destroyed when fired; the task was normally assigned to a worker with up to nine years' experience.
caption: A Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun; the breech is housed at the right-hand side of the weapon
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