DARTMOOR Prison Museum has a group of three religious oil paintings on display which attract admiration and astonishment from visitors.

Each picture has a caption written in English and Greek and is painted on thick slate slabs which date from the earliest days of the prison when the floors of the landings were paved with them.

The pictures once graced the altar in the old Church of England Chapel in the prison.

When it ceased to be of service as a place of worship they lay hidden behind other redundant artefacts until 1996 when they were drawn to the attention of Governor of Works John Conduit.

He recognised their exceptional quality and arranged for them to be professionally restored before installing them in the museum.

They are works of art in their own right ? but who was the artist?

No-one knew until May this year when a woman visitor walked in and said: ?I have been told you have my uncle?s paintings on display?.

Museum curator David Francis raised his eyebrows and reached for a notebook. He said: ?His name was James Wanmantle, an ex-sailor who was known in prison as ?Jimmy the One?.

?He was born in Poplar, east London, in 1929 of a Chinese father and a Greek mother.

An associate of the notorious Krays and Richardsons, he was in and out of trouble for most of his life and painted the three pictures while serving a ten-year sentence for violent robbery.

?It is not known where he acquired his considerable artistic talent but his knowledge of Greek may be attributed to his mother. He died in or about 1980.?

Footnote: There are three more oil paintings of an historical nature hanging in the prison about which little is known except they were executed by another unknown inmate.