Henry William Pickerscill (1782-1875) Portrait of Field Marshall Viscount Hugh Gough (1779-1869) and Major General William Arbuthnot (1838-1893), oil on canvas, 128.5 x 102 cm, frame 138.5 x 112 cm

Footnote: The Portrait shows Field Marshall Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough of Goojerate and his grandson, the son of Gough's daughter Gertrude Sophia, who followed his grandsire into the army to become Major General William Arbuthnot.

Field Marshal Gough was commissioned to the Limerick Militia in 1792, before transferring in 1795 to the 76th Highlanders. He fought at the Cape of Good Hope and at Barossa. He was with the 87th Regiment of Foot at the siege of Tarifa. He earned a knighthood in 1815 and in 1819 was given command of the 22nd Regiment of Foot, sent to Ireland in 1821. He leased Rathronan House in Tipperary in 1826 with his wife Francis Maria, before moving to Bangalore in 1837 upon his appointment as Commander of the Mysore Division of the Madras Army. He was involved in the Opium War and was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. In 1843 Gough returned to India for a further six years as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, leading the army during the annexation of Punjab. He was made Viscount in 1849 and voted by parliament a pension of £2,000 per annum for himself and his next two successors in addition to £2,000 per annum from the East India Company. He purchased St. Helen's from Colonel White in 1851 and when he died in 1869 he left £40,000 in personal estate. On the 21st February 1880 a statue designed by John Henry Foley (1818-1874) and William Thomas Brock (1847-1922) was unveiled in his honour at the Phoenix Park, which had been created from gun and canon metal taken and captured by his troops. The statue was frequently vandalised and was blown up by the IRA, it was removed from the park in 1957 and now stands in Chillingham Castle, Northumberland.

Major General Arbuthnot was educated at Eton and entered the army on the 25th March 1856 as an ensign in the Rifle Brigade. He was posted to India to fight in the Indian Mutiny. He transferred to the 14th Hussars in 1861 and by 1867 he was serving in Abyssinia as aide-de-camp and Assistant Military Secretary to Lord Napier, Commander of the expedition. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed commanding officer of the 14th Hussars on 15th June 1876. He was still with the Hussars when they were posted to South Africa in 1881, in that same year he was promoted to Colonel and in 1885 he was part of the Sudan expedition. On the 19th March 1890 he was promoted to Major-General

Country of origin: United Kingdom