Strange Signals in Newburgh on Ythan

On another cold and dark day in Newburgh let me take you back in time, to the Sinai desert in 1917. There the artist James McBey had just started work on an etching of a camel patrol.

McBey was born in Newburgh on Ythan in 1883. Abandoned by his father, he was raised by his mother and her family in abject poverty. At the age of fifteen he gained employment with a bank in Aberdeen and from then on supported himself, his mother, and grandmother until his mother's suicide in 1906. With no remaining family ties, James McBey embarked upon a career as a professional artist, a career which was to propel him to great financial success and international fame.

In the summer of 1917 McBey was appointed by the War Office to the post of Official Artist in Egypt. He accompanied the Australian Camel Corps and the troops throughout the desert war and was present at the liberation of both Jerusalem and Damascus.

Strange Signals, one of the most famous of McBey's renowned desert etchings, shows two guides in front of the Camel Patrol, gazing fixedly ahead. In the distance, a mirage had appeared giving the momentary impression of smoke signals.

Sadly, I own but a cheap modern copy of this great work!