ASHLEY George Old could be the most gifted artist you’ve never heard of.

He is also a war hero whose courage painting fellow prisoners of war in Japan in the Second World War, helped changed the world.

Old is best known for documenting the brutal lives of prisoners of war forced to construct the Thailand-Burma Railway.

He was born in Bedford and trained at Northamptonshire College of Art but in his later years he came to live on Canvey. He worked for a time in Southend and is even buried in Benfleet.

Old was stationed in Singapore and served as a Gunner in the 5th Sherwood Foresters. When Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942 he was taken prisoner and sent to work on the Death Railway.

He was first held at Changi prisoner of war camp before being moved to Thailand. Throughout captivity, Old used his artistic talent to create watercolour portraits of fellow prisoners of war in exchange for tobacco.

Having to improvise for materials, Old used the local clay for his drawing which, when dried, ground and mixed with water created the signature rusty reddish hues familiar in much of his work.

As well as portraits, Old also charted the appalling conditions and diseases endured by the prisoners.

Along with a handful of other British servicemen who were trained artists, Old worked secretly for the POW medical staff in the hospital camps of the Thai-Burma railway. These men risked their lives every day to ensure the horrors of the camps would one day be known.

After the Japanese surrendered, Old made it back home to England and relocated to Ruskoi Road, Canvey, but throughout his post-war life he struggled with the after-effects of his captivity.

For a while Old worked at the Westcliff Hotel and also had a job at Egan’s electrical factory on Canvey where he was known for being a gentle, modest man who always went by the name “George”.

The Canvey Community Archives (www.canveyisland.org) has documented Old’s life and features memories of people’s encounters with the unassuming artist.

One former colleague said: “I knew Ashley when he worked at Egen Electric in the 1970s.

“He was a lovely gentle man, everyone called him George, when I asked him why, he said he thought Ashley was too posh for a factory worker. He did mention his war years but not very often…too painful for him.

“George was a wonderful artist , he mentioned how ironic it was that before the war he painted the murals in the Japanese Embassy in London. This didn’t give him any privileges when he was in their clutches in the prison camp though.”

Another Canvey resident had this memory of Old: “He passed my house on Link Road on his walks to the local shops. If mum and I were out in the front garden he would stop and have a chat, often giving a bit of money to buy some sweets.

“Little did I know of his traumatic and heroic past. He never recovered, I remember him being very angry about the Japanese made cars, TVs, cameras etc, his experiences traumatised him for the rest of his life.”

He died in 2001 aged 87. Today his work can be found in museums around the world. The bulk of his paintings are held in the State Library of Victoria in Australia.