'Group of Bashi Bazouks - Zabeks - Kurdish Arabs - Schumla', Turkey, 1854 (c)

Watercolour by 2nd Lieutenant William Thomas Markham (1830-1886), 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade, 1854 (c).

A gathering of irregular cavalry allied to the British and French during the Crimean War.

During the Crimean War, 4,000 Bashi Bazouks, Turkish irregulars, were placed under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel (later Major-General) William Fergusson Beatson (1804-1872). The Bashi Bazouks had earned an unsavoury reputation for pillage and indiscipline during fighting in Silistria. In spite of the subsequent attempt of Beatson to instil order into the irregulars brought into British pay, his efforts were undermined by the refusal of Lord Raglan to make use of them.

From an album of watercolour paintings and sketches by Colonel William Markham, 1820 (c) and Second Lieutenant William Thomas Markham (1830-1886), 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade, relating to the Crimean War (1854-1856), 1854 (c).

Purchased with the assistance of the Society of Friends of the National Army Museum.