This painting, entitled Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Gazette
after the Battle of Waterloo, by Scottish artist Sir David
Wilkie, was commissioned by the Duke of Wellington and shows a group
of wounded, invalided and elderly soldiers celebrating the British
victory at Waterloo. Presumably, they are reading the London
Gazette, an official publication that included army despatches
and reports of military engagements. Within the group there is a
Black soldier, in what looks like a musician's uniform, as
well as a soldier from India (although it is unlikely that this
soldier is Asian).
In his notes composed when the painting was first shown at the Royal
Academy, in 1822, Wilkie describes the Black soldier as:
'...one of the band of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, who
was in France during the Revolution; was present at the death
of Louis XVI, and was afterwards servant to General Moreau, in
his campaigns in Germany...'
He does not, however, give the soldier's name.
The Wellington Museum, Apsley House 1469-1948 (1822)
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