Lieutenant (later Captain) Charles Swanston (1789-1850), in the uniform of the Poona Irregular Horse, 1819 (c)

Oil on canvas by a Company artist, 1819 (c).

Full-length portrait of Swanston wearing a long, brown-drab kurta (long coat) and wide red lungi (sash), holding the bridle of his unsettled horse in his right hand, with a pistol at his waist and a bamboo lance in his left hand.

The Poona Irregular Horse were raised on 15 June 1817 as part of the Treaty of Poona (now Pune) between the East India Company and Baj Rao II, the last Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy. The new regiment was to be maintained at the Peshwas' own expense and stationed on his territory. The force was later renamed the 34th Prince Albert Victor's Own Poona Horse.