Brigadier General McPherson and Officers of the 4th Division, 1855
Photograph by Roger Fenton (1819-1869), Crimean War, 1855.
Captain Arthur Maxwell Earle, 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot is second from right.
Casualties among general officers were so heavy at the Battle of Inkerman that a man like Philip McPherson, who - through seniority alone - had risen to the command of a battalion at an advanced age, was given leadership of a brigade. The verdict on McPherson's capabilities delivered by his Brigade Major, Maxwell Earle, pictured here reading a dispatch (McPherson is the white-bearded figure standing to his left), was damning: 'Had I but a Goldie for a Brigadier instead of an old nonentity who, were I to put his own death warrant on his desk, he would sign it!'.
NAM Accession Number
NAM. 1964-12-151-6-9
Copyright/Ownership
National Army Museum, Out of Copyright
Location
National Army Museum, Study collection
Object URL
https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1964-12-151-6-9
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