(I've just linked the Times article in the following, since everyone should know how to get to canmore at RCAHMS.)

An evocative feature of RCAHMS 'Defence of Britain' survey programme has caught the attention of the national press.

An article in Saturday's Times Newspaper highlights the remarkable collection of images of wartime graffiti held in the RCAHMS archive. The graffiti comprises both drawings and paintings and ranges from pencil scribbles to elaborate murals stretching round the walls of entire rooms. It also features poems, limericks, sayings and mathematical calculations.

Examples include portraits of three members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force on the wall of a church in Castletown (used in the war as an officer's mess); a large number of portraits of women and poems at Dalbeattie Royal Naval Armaments Depot; a large scale mural of a dance scene painted by Polish soldiers at Grant's Shoe Factory in Arbroath; and a mural at Donibristle airfield in Fife depicting the workers in the officer's mess and airfield as Egyptians.

The recording of wartime art and graffiti became an established part of the 'Defence of Britain' survey programme several years ago after David Easton, the investigator on the survey, discovered a Mason's mark in the concrete used to convert a 19th century Orkney farmhouse into a pillbox. This recognition that so many wartime buildings hold secret social and personal histories has added a new dimension to an already fascinating body of survey work.

For more images and information go to our searchable online database canmore.

Very interesting stuff here Apollo. I had a look around it and learned that it is not at all like the graffiti i had in mind. The only wartime graffiti I recall were of the scribbled-on-a-wall variety, and lacking in the artistic ability evident in the ones seen on your recommended site. I'd say offhand, from what i recall that "Kilroy was here" was the most common one, followed by the "Wot no beer?" under a scribbled face and hands appearing over a wall or something. The "Open a Second Front" graffiti were very common just before D-Day. I do recall some "No truck with the Reds" around Clydeside, but I don't think they were widespread.

I remember photographing some wartime graffiti on the wall of the station HQ at Findo Gask airfield in the early '90s. It consisted of a pencil drawing of a man in Polish uniform, and a female with a '40s hairstyle.
The photo is a bit blurred, and when I went back a few years ago the building had been cleared. All that remained were the control tower (now gone) and the Battle HQ.