William Keppel, Viscount Bury — 'The Auxiliary Forces'

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') renders Viscount Bury, PC KCMG — politician, traveller, and advocate of Volunteer militia reform — in full auxiliary-forces uniform: dark tunic heavy with aiguillettes and a starburst decoration, peaked cap with pompom, and a cavalry sword trailing almost to the floor. The side-profile pose, standard to the series, exaggerates his rotund torso and magnificent red beard against a bare cream ground. The caption, 'The Auxiliary Forces,' identifies his public cause: he had pressed Parliament to reorganise and better fund Britain's part-time Volunteer corps, the citizen-soldier reserve that anxious mid-Victorian opinion saw as the last guarantee against continental-style invasion. The plate is signed 'Ape' lower right.