| William Oakley Burgess after Andrew Morton Lieutenant General Lord Raglan. General Commanding in Chief The British Forces in Turkey 16 x 22 inches Three-quarter length mezzotint portrait by Burgess after Morton and published in London by Ackermann in 1841. There is very much a 'before and after. narrative to this mezzotint portrait of Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, more famously known as Lord Raglan. Close inspection will reveal that the sitter has lost his right arm and the most cursory research reveals that he lost this in action, serving under Wellington at Waterloo. What is not yet evident is that Raglan would go on to become involved in the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 where, as a result of an ill-judged and potentially ambiguous order from him, Lord Cardigan (an inexperienced officer) would authorise what became known as The Charge of the Light Brigade, a disastrous manoeuvre resulting in 278 British casualties. As Commander in Chief in the Crimea, the responsibility lay ultimately with Raglan and it was a decision that would define his career and potentially hasten his death a year later in 1855. Alfred Tennyson refers to the military incompetence in the second verse of his famous poem, ''The Charge of the Light Brigade'' £420 |
