'Gen Fane's Marquee Chobham 53', 1853 (c)

Watercolour by George Bryant Campion (1796-1870), 1853 (c).

The tent of General Mildmay Fane (1795-1868) at Chobham Camp, 1853. Fane was a veteran of the Peninsular War (1808-1814) and the Waterloo campaign (1815).

Campion was a watercolour artist who specialised in landscapes and military subjects including reviews and camps. He was the Drawing Master at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich from 1841. Two of his watercolours of the Windsor review of 1869 were offered to Queen Victoria. They were purchased by her son, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, whose governor described Campion as 'a very eccentric old man, [who] will have his own way'.

Campion drew a number of scenes of Chobham camp in 1853. From 14 June to 25 August 1853, 10,000 men, 1,500 horses and 24 guns mustered on Chobham Common in Surrey for drill, field operations and parades, under the command of Lieutenant-General (later Field Marshal) John Colborne, First Baron Seaton (1778-1863). Known as the 'Great Camp', Chobham was the scene of the first large-scale manoeuvres in Britain since the Napoleonic Wars. The object of the encampment was to improve the efficiency and discipline of the British Army, which had not seen active service in Europe in nearly forty years. These preparations proved invaluable in the Crimean War of 1854-1856.