NAM.1995-03-25-1

Captain Edward Barrett, 15th (or the King’s) Regiment of Light Dragoons (Hussars) (1791-1818), 1818 Miniature in watercolour on paper, signed and dated verso, ‘J W Childe Pinxit/ 1818/ 125 Strand/ London’, by James Warren Childe (1778 (c)-1862), 1818. Half-length portrait in uniform. In a glazed, black wooden frame with a brass slip and acorn suspension loop at the top. Edward Barrett was a lieutenant in the 15th (or the King’s) Regiment of Light Dragoons (Hussars) when he fought during the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. On 27th February 1814 after the Battle or Orthez, ‘We do hear that Lieutenant Edward Barrett of 15th Hussars has received a serious wound somewhere along the way to this final destination no doubt due to a contact with that ever retiring rearguard of General Pierre Soult’s chasseurs on those dismal waterlogged tracks and interminable cold mountain streams ever eastward.’ He went on half pay the following year before dieing in 1818, the year that this portrait was painted. Bearing inscription in pen and ink verso, ‘Edward Barrett/ 15th Hussars/ J W Childe Pinxit/ 1818/ 125 Strand/ London’ With typescript label inscribed; ‘EDWARD BARRETT/ 15th Kings Hussars/ Present at the Battle of Waterloo./ Born 1791/ Died 1818.’ Barrett went on half pay on 25 May 1816.

Waterloo, Battle of, 1815 (Napoleonic Wars, Waterloo 1815)