'Tartars of the Crimea (from nature)', 1855

Watercolour by Colonel (later General Sir) The Honourable George Cadogan (1814-1880), 1855.

During the Crimean War (1854-1856) British and French armies in the Crimea employed locals like the Crimean Tartars to carry out general labouring tasks. This, alongside many Moslem Tartars' sympathy with their Ottoman co-religonists, increased Russian government suspicion that the Crimean Tartars were collaborators and something of a 'fifth column'. In the aftermath of the conflict, many Crimean Tartars emigrated to escape Russian persecution, settling in nearby Ottoman territories.

From an album of paintings and sketches (with some paper ephemera) of Colonel (later General Sir) The Honourable George Cadogan, 1st (or Grenadier) Regiment of Foot Guards; also known as 'Cadogan's Crimea', 1854-1856.