DARWEN Library's oil painting of the Battle of Jutland is coming 'home' - some 40 years after it was taken to Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery.

Charles Dixon's striking artwork will be unveiled at the Library Friends' coffee morning on Saturday, November 22, by former Royal Marine Ken Bennett, of Bowling Green Close, who will be accompanied by his wife Muriel.

The painting was donated to Darwen Corporation by 'an anonymous friend' in 1920 as 'a tribute of admiration to all those of Darwen who went forth to battle for their king and country’s cause and who, by their self-sacrifice and gallantry, helped to achieve a glorious victory in the Great War'.

It used to have pride of place in Darwen Reference Library but was moved after the town was taken over by Blackburn in the local government reorganisation of 1974.

It will now look out over the main library from a position behind the information desk.

Harold Heys, secretary of the Friends of Darwen Library, came up with the idea of getting the painting back and an old friend, Patricia Turner, suggested Ken, a neighbour, would be the ideal man to draw back an 8ft x 5ft white ensign which will be draped over it.

Ken had a colourful - and wet - career in the Second World War.

He was in the Marines a month after war was declared and his first ship, the cruiser HMS Fiji, was torpedoed 500 miles west of Ireland.

Luckily, it managed to get back to port where it was refitted and sent to the Mediterranean where it was involved in the defence of Crete.

HMS Fiji used up all its ammunition fighting off Messerschmitt and Junker bombers and was a sitting duck before being blown out of the water. Hundreds of his shipmates died.

Ken was rescued by HMS Kandahar and spent months in hospital before joining the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle in the battle to keep Malta going.

This time, four torpedoes put paid to Ken's ship and hundreds more of this colleagues were killed.

The cruiser HMS Royaliste was Ken's next ship and it managed to get to the end of the war without further incident, spending a lot of time in the Far East.

Ken settled down to the rather quieter life of a postman.

Mr Heys said: "I can't think of anyone more fitting to unveil Darwen's Battle of Jutland. He is a wonderful old boy."

The painting shows the Fifth Battle Squadron fighting their way south to support the British Grand Fleet’s battle cruisers engaging with the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea on the evening of May 31, 1916.