His first major break came in 1937, with a commission to illustrate My Friend Mr Leakey, a children's book by the scientist JBS Haldane.

[6] Whilst the other fireman, the author William Sansom, survived, the scene haunted Rosoman and he re-worked the painting several times.

As well as contributing to both War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, and specialist civil defence art shows, the firemen held several of their own exhibitions.

On board Formidable he became fascinated by the new technologies he encountered there, "I've become interested in all sorts of strange devices like radar indicators, pom-poms and planes with wings that fold up like a moth's".

[2] In 1951 Rosoman painted a mural for the Festival of Britain on the South Bank in London and drew his first illustrations for the Radio Times.

[12] His work there consists of a series of panels with scenes from the lives of St Augustine, Thomas Becket and Matthew Parker, and a Christ in Glory.