Inspection of wounded soldiers from the Crimea in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace

Photograph of Queen Victoria meeting wounded Crimean War veterans in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. The Queen and members of the Royal family are standing in a small group to the right with a number of the veterans. The other soldiers, around fifty in total, are seated on benches in a semi circle around the Royal party. There is a large tree to the right and Buckingham Palace can be seen behind. The upper corners have been cut into an arch.

Throughout the war Queen Victoria had taken an active interest in the welfare of the troops and on their return to Britain she met a number of the wounded veterans at Buckingham Palace and at the military hospital at Chatham. Queen Victoria wrote about the day in her journal, describing the injuries of several of the soldiers that she encountered. She wrote, 'we saw, in the garden, 100 wounded & sick Guardsmen. Upon the whole, they looked well, & were remarkably fine men. Amongst the Grenadiers there were, I think, 2 who had lost their legs, & one or 2 cases of bad frostbites...The sick, from each Reg^t, were mostly cases of scurvy, diarrhea & rheumatism. It was a pretty sight, to see them all drawn up on the lawn.'