After a career as a civil engineer before and after serving in the Royal Navy in the Second World War, he became widely recognised as one of the leading English painters of marine subjects.
He left school in 1931, and trained as a civil engineer in Glasgow with the London Midland & Scottish Railway.
His ship escorted convoys in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, and was then posted to the Mediterranean to support the Operation Torch landings in North Africa.
Malcolm came under fire and was forced to withdraw with engine damage, but Broke rammed through a boom protecting the harbour and disembarked its shore party.
The convoy was attacked by a submarine: the escort carrier immediately ahead, HMS Avenger, was torpedoed and sank.
By the end of the war, he was an acting commander, serving as Assistant Chief Staff Officer Ceylon, based in Colombo.
An exhibition of his work at Messum's gallery in Mayfair in October 2005, the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, included paintings of every ship in which Nelson had served.