A GOBOWEN family is taking a piece of history to a famous British war museum.

The Thomas family will loan a war painting from a late family member to be copied and archived by the Imperial War Museum in London.

Painted by Norman Thomas in 1943, the image depicts a wartime aircraft flying over hills with an explosion on the ground in the background.

The image was painted by Norman at the age of 13, and has since been kept by his wife, Dorothy.

After contacting the London-based museum, the family has been asked to take the painting to the museum where it will be used as part of the history of the war efforts.

Dorothy is pleased to see the painting going to the museum.

“This will be kept in perpetuity and copies of it will be made for anyone who is doing research,” she said.

“It would be interesting to find out whether or not they actually raised the money required.

“It’s 77 years old and full of colour and in great condition.

“The card around the paper has preserved it and it still looks fantastic.

“It’s amazing to look back at it and realise this was part of the war effort which was taking place all over the country.

“We can’t quite work out what model the plane is supposed to be, but Norman was a plane spotter and he was very good at recognising them from their shape alone.”

The couple’s sons, Richard and David, researched further into the painting and discovered its purpose.

Richard said: “The archivists looked at it and decided it was worthy of them taking it at the main museum in London.

“The painting was part of a campaign to encourage people in Wrexham and its surrounding areas to raise money for one of these planes.

“If our calculations are right, the figure on the poster of £275,000 equates to £12,500,000 in today’s money – that’s how much they were trying to raise for one of these planes.

“That really does bring it home and make you realise how big of an ask it was for locals to raise funds.”