'From my tent door Scutari June 6 1854', Crimean War, 1854

Watercolour by Lieutenant Francis Augustus Grant (1829-1854), 79th Regiment of Foot (Cameron Highlanders), 1854.

The 79th Regiment of Foot (Cameron Highlanders), part of the Highland Brigade, sailed from Portsmouth, arriving at Constantinople in late May 1854. The British camp at Scutari, situated opposite Constantinople on the Bosphorus coast of Turkey, was a key staging post for troops en route to the Crimea.

Francis Grant's letters to his family record the 79th moving from Scutari to 'Aladeen' and then 'Gevrekler' in July 1854, prior to being shipped to the Crimea. Grant took part in the Battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854. According to monthly returns Grant died on 1 October 1854, in the 'Camp Balaclava Heights'. Since he is not recorded aseither killed in action or dying as a result of wounds, it is presumedthat Lieutenant Grant succumbed to disease.