Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War did not appear in print until 1955 at the earliest. This was not unusual, in as an Official History of the First World War had also been many years in coming. Though the first of a projected eight volumes by Colonel Duguid first saw print in 1938, 20 years after the Armistice, the remaining 7 volumes were never completed. G.W.L. Nicholson published a one-volume Official History in 1964. The Royal Canadian Air Force's official Second World War history was not published until the 1990s. In Stacey's words: "Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War: Volume I.
British official war artists creates a visual account of war by showing its impact as men and women are shown waiting, preparing, fighting, suffering and celebrating. The works produced by war artists illustrate and record many aspects of war, and the individual's experience of war, whether allied or enemy, service or civilian, military or political, social or cultural. The rôle of the artist and his work embraces the causes, course and consequences of conflict and it has an essentially educational purpose. Throughout the early years of the First World War, the British Government did not support an official war artist scheme. This began to