British Empire Gallery

Colonel Mordaunt watching a cock fight at Lucknow, India, 1790. Artist: Johan Zoffany

Colonel Mordaunt watching a cock fight at Lucknow, India, 1790. In an open-sided tent, East India Company officers and administrators sit and stand under a canopy. In the foreground two cocks with metal spurs fight, anxiously watched by attendants. Various members of the surrounding Indian crowd hold their fighting cocks in readiness for their turn. A group of women stand apart on the left with musicians behind them. This picture once belonged to Warren Hastings (1732-1818), the first Governor-General of India

© Ann Ronan Picture Library / Heritage-Images

Thus Did A Hundred Men Keep Three Thousand Savages At Bay, c1908, (c1920). Artist: Joseph Ratcliffe Skelton

Thus Did A Hundred Men Keep Three Thousand Savages At Bay, c1908, (c1920). In 1877, Theophilus Shepstone (1817-1893) a British South African statesman was responsible for the annexation of the Transvaal to Britain. One of the reasons given for the annexation was to prevent the Zulu?s attacking the Boers, instead the Zulu?s attacked Natal and later the British Army. From Our Empire Story, by H. E. Marshall [Thomas Nelson And Sons, London, c1920]

© The Print Collector

Indian cavalrymen, 1896. Artist: Gregory & Co

Indian cavalrymen, 1896. Guides Cavalry (Queen's Own) of the North West Frontier; the Central India Horse; the 1st Bengal Cavalry (the famous 1st Irregulars); the 9th Bengal Lancers (the renowned 1st Hodson's Horse); the 11th (Prince of Wales's Own) Bengal Lancers; the 18th Bengal Lancers, known as the 2nd Mahratta Horse; the 1st Punjab Cavalry; and the 1st Bombay Cavalry, the old Poona Horse'. A print from The Navy and Army Illustrated, 3rd April 1896

© The Print Collector / Heritage-Images