LCdr. McClelland Barclay (1891-1943) Naval Artist WWI and WWII Killed in Action 1943
Barclay's first connection with the Navy came during World War I when he was awarded the Navy Poster Prize by the Committee on National Preparedness, 1917, for his poster "Fill the Breach." The following year, he worked on Naval camouflage under William Andrew Mackay, Chief of the New York District Emergency Fleet Corporation. He renewed his naval connection on 13 June 1938, when he was appointed Assistant Naval Constructor with the rank of Lieutenant, USNR. In mid-1940, Barclay prepared designs for experimental camouflage for different types of Navy combat aircraft. Evaluation tests, however, showed that pattern camouflage was of little, if any, use for the aircraft.
On 19 October 1940, Barclay reported for active duty. He served in the New York Recruiting Office, designing posters over the next two and a half years that would become some of the Navy's most popular recruiting images of World War II. With the entrance of the United States into the war in 1941, he volunteered to become a combat artist. Though not accepted as a part of the official Combat Art Section, he fulfilled similar functions through the Recruiting Office.
LCDR Barclay made short tours of duty in both the Atlantic and the Pacific on the U.S.S. Arkansas (BB-33), U.S.S. Pennsylvania (BB-38), U.S.S. Honolulu (CL-48), and U.S.S. Maryland (BB-46). On 18 July 1943, Barclay was aboard LST-342 (Group 14, Flotilla 5) when it was torpedoed by Japanese submarine Ro-106 at 1:30 a.m. He had been on board since the first of the month, sketching and taking photographs, during which time LST-342 had been carrying ammunition and supplies to Rendova, New Georgia in the Solomon Islands from Guadalcanal. The torpedo struck the aft portion of the ship where officers and others, including Barclay, were berthed. The stern sank immediately. Barclay, along with most of the crew, perished. The bow of the LST remained afloat and was towed to a beach on the island of Ghavutu so that any useable equipment could be salvaged. Remains of the ship are still rusting there today. Barclay was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal, and entitled to the American Defense Service Medal, Fleet Clasp; the Asiatic-Pacific Area Campaign Medal; the American Area Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal.
The "Navy and Marine Corps Medal" was designed by Lt. Cmdr. McClelland Barclay, a naval reservist who was a professional artist in civilian life, the approved design featured a spread-winged eagle perched on a fouled anchor. Below the anchor was a globe depicting the western hemisphere, and below that was the inscription, "Heroism."
In 1944 Barclay was awarded the Art Directors Club Medal posthumously, "in recognition of his long and distinguished record in editorial illustration and advertising art and in honor of his devotion and meritorious service to his country as a commissioned officer of the United States Navy."
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