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A LANCER'S ALBUM

[12TH ROYAL LANCERS]. [An attractive scrapbook predominantly comprised of material relating to the 12th Royal Lancers].

[s.i.]. [s.n.], [s.d., 1860s-70s]
Oblong folio. [34] leaves, of which 23 used, the remainder blank. Containing, inter alia, 13 hand-drawn watercolour postal fronts, 20 watercolours/pen and ink sketches, and 34 photographs, primarily depicting members of the Royal Lancers. Contemporary gilt-ruled half crushed morocco, brown cloth boards, lettered in gilt to upper board 'A. F. 12th. R. L.', T.E.G. Lightly rubbed and marked.
A superbly evocative scrapbook of watercolours, sketches, and photographs primarily depicting members of the 12th Royal Lancers in the second half of the nineteenth century. The latter include a group image of officers at Cabir, 1865, and several detailed images of the Curragh Camp; also included is a sketch map of a sea-journey to India.

A cavalry regiment of the British Army first formed in 1715, the 12th Royal Lancers saw service during the Crimean War, where it notably reinforced the Light Cavalry Brigade following the notorious Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava. It was stationed in India between 1857 and 1860 in response to the Indian Rebellion, before fighting in the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

The watercolour fronts are addressed to Mrs. Wombwell of Chirk Castle, Captain Fletcher of York, and Miss T. Frere of Battlesden Park. Mrs. Wombwell is presumably Mary Caroline Myddelton-Biddulph, wife of Adolphus Ulick Wombwell (1834-1886), a Lieutenant Colonel in the 12th Lancers. Comparing the initials to the 1860s Army Lists suggest that the likely source of the material for this album was Alexander Fletcher, commissioned 1860 as a Captain in the 12th Lancers.
£ 2,000.00 Antiquates Ref: 27689