Major General Herbert Taylor MacPherson VC, 1886 (c)

Oil on canvas by Edmund Havell Jnr and Edward Deanes, 1889.

Lieutenant General Sir Herbert Taylor Macpherson (1827-1886) received the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859) for setting an example of heroic gallantry to the men of his regiment, the 78th (Highland) Regiment of Foot (Ross-shire Buffs), at Lucknow on 25 September 1857, at the period of the action in which they captured two brass 9-pounders at bayonet point.

Macpherson commanded the 1st Brigade of the 1st Division during the 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880). Macpherson had won the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859). He went on to command the Indian contingent in the Egyptian War (1882) but died of fever during the 3rd Burma War in 1886 and was buried in Rangoon.

Gift from Mrs Nancy Clare de Ferry Foster, 1995