Montagu Williams — 'In his military capacity'

Leslie Ward ('Spy') renders the barrister and playwright Montagu Williams as a lean, self-satisfied man in formal black tailcoat and waistcoat, one hand pocketed, the other holding a smouldering cigarette, his chin tilted upward in easy confidence. The caption — 'In his military capacity' — is a dry joke: Williams was known to the public chiefly as a criminal lawyer and man-about-town, not a soldier; the phrase mocks a dilettante's pride in minor volunteering. Ward's caricature elongates the jaw and exaggerates the ruddy, wide-nostrilled face without ethnic distortion. The overall tone is affectionate; Vanity Fair treated Williams as a clubbable wit rather than a target.