Jack Bridger Chalker

Who is Jack Bridger Chalker?

Jack Bridger Chalker, born October 10, 1918, London, England, is an artist best known for his work recording the lives of prisoners of war in World War II.

After training in Graphics and Painting at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Chalker was drafted into the British Army before he could take up the scholarship he won to the Painting School of the Royal College of Art, London. While posted to Singapore with the Royal Field Artillery in February 1942, he was captured by the invading Japanese forces and held as a prisoner of war in Changi prison before being sent to work on the Burma Death Railway. Here he recorded the lives of POWs through drawings and paintings.

After being retrieved from a hidden cache, his work was returned to him after the war. It gained wide attention when sold at auction in 2002.

Many of the paintings are now located at the Australian War Memorial.

His works, together with those of fellow POW artists Philip Meninsky, Ashley George Old and Ronald Searle form a unique record of prisoners' suffering.

After the war he graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1951, leaving as an RBA and subsequently RWA. Later he was elected a fellow of the Society of Medical Artists of Great Britain.