Major General (later Lieutenant-General Sir) Charles Ashe Windham, Coldstream Guards, standing in front of the Redan, Sevastopol, 1855 (c)

Oil on canvas by Charles Couzens (1821-1889), 1858 (c).

Following active service with the Coldstream Guards in Canada from 1838 to 1842, Windham (1810-1870) retired on half-pay in 1849 in the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. However, on the outbreak of the Crimean War (1854-1856), he was promoted colonel and appointed Assistant Quartermaster General of the 4th Division. Windham distinguished himself at the Battle of Inkerman (5 November 1854), having succeeded to the command of the 4th Division at an early stage of the action.

Windham was then selected to lead the final abortive attack by the 2nd Division on the Redan on 8 September 1855. In the face of devastating Russian fire, he was the only officer to penetrate the battery. For 'his distinguished conduct in having with the greatest intrepidity and coolness headed the column of attack which assaulted the enemy's defences', he was made a major-general. He was also an outspoken critic of the management of the War and, during the terrible winter of 1854, he did all he could to alleviate the sufferings of his starving and frozen men.

Windham went on to serve during the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859), where he commanded a division throughout the operations at Kanpur (Cawnpore). Promoted lieutenant-general in 1863, he received a KCB in 1865. His last appointment was in 1867 as Commander of the British forces in Canada.