FROM Tuesday, July 5, to Saturday, July 9, the Mall Galleries near Admiralty Arch will stage the 71st annual exhibition of paintings and sculpture by members of the Armed Forces Art Society, together with a collection of sketches by Matthew Cook. Formerly a war artist for The Times, Cook has recently returned from another spell in Iraq, this time as a Territorial Army NCO.
The society aims to encourage art in the three Armed Services and demonstrate that the profession of arms and participation in the arts are entirely compatible. About 350 works — the majority of non-military subjects — by professional and talented amateur artists will be on show, many for sale. One third of the exhibits are oils, while the rest are sculpture, acrylic, ink, pencil, mixed media works and etchings. The society’s patron, the Prince of Wales, is to lend a painting for exhibition.
The society is open to servicemen and women, past and present, and their spouses. The website is: www.afas.org.uk
Exhibits will include works by Anna Redwood, ROI, Vice-Admiral Sir John Webster, RSMA, Major-General Ken Perkins, Tony Neve (formerly RAF), WO2 Douglas Farthing and the musician Matthew Bicknell, RM.
The psychiatric disabilities charity, Combat Stress, will contribute a collection of works by clients. The society will be supporting SSAFA and the Army Benevolent Fund by making the venue available for receptions during the week.
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The exhibition will be opened by Lord Garden, the Liberal Democrat peer and television commentator on defence issues. Thales, the principal sponsor, will present a prize, as will the National Army Museum, and the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, in addition to the society’s prizes for painting and sculpture.
The exhibition will be open from 10am to 5pm, Tuesday to Friday, and 10am to 3pm on Saturday. Entrance is free.
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Waterloo anniversary
Rather than crediting Wellington’s victory at Waterloo to the weather, as suggested in Paul Simons’s article on June 18, could the honour be rightly due to the 52nd Light Infantry?
Wellington’s dispatch after the battle quoted Major-General Peregrine Maitland’s Guards Brigade as the force responsible for halting the French Garde Impériale on the crest between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte — but was that the cause of the enemy’s subsequent panic and disorderly retreat?
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The testimony of Ensign William Leeke, carrying the regimental colour of the 52nd Light Infantry, suggests his regiment caused the rout. The 52nd were in the centre of General Frederick Adam’s Light Brigade on the right of the Guards, and their Colonel, Sir John Colborne, saw the first two French battalions halted and thrown back by Maitland’s brigade. On his own initiative, he sent two companies forward as skirmishers, the role for which the light infantry had been formed and trained, and led the rest of his regiment down the forward slope to a position from where they could fire into the enemy’s flank, then charge. Surprised, the Garde’s still advancing column hesitated, broke ranks and headed pell-mell down the hill, pursued by Colborne’s light infantrymen.
So why did the 52nd receive no mention in Wellington’s dispatch? Three French accounts of the battle acknowledge the attack on the Garde Impériale’s left flank and one gives the 52nd Light Infantry the credit for it. It cannot be that Wellington was unaware of the action, as he galloped forward when the French ran calling, “Well done, Colborne, well done! Go on, don’t let them rally.” Perhaps readers might have an explanation to suggest? E-mails to nigelsale@ktdinternet.com