'The Outlying Piquet', 1839

Frontispiece from a volume of 14 coloured lithographs 'The Storming of Ghuznee and Kelat' by W Taylor after Lieutenant Thomas Wingate, 2nd Queen's Royal Regiment, 1839 (c).

Thomas Wingate (1807-1869) joined the British Army as an ensign in 1826. His first overseas posting was to Ceylon. By 1834 he was on the strength of the 2nd (The Queen's Royal) Regiment of Foot. In 1839 his regiment was part of General Sir John Keane's Army of the Indus which forced the Bolan Pass, occupied Kandahar and captured the fortress of Ghazni before advancing on to Kabul where it installed Shah Shujah as Emir.

His regiment subsequently withdrew to India and thus avoided being caught up in the 1841 uprising and the subsequent massacre during the retreat from Kabul. Wingate was a talented artist and prepared a series of lithographs depicting scenes from the early stages of the campaign.