Captain Morgan on the winner of the Crimean races

Photograph of Captain Morgan in left side profile, sitting astride his horse. He is wearing a racing outfit and holds the reins in both hands with a riding crop in his right hand. There are tents and people in the background.

In the spring of 1855, between sporadic bouts of action, the British and French officers in the Crimea amused themselves with duck-shooting, dog-hunts and horse-racing. It may have been activities like these which led a former attaché at the French Headquarters to report to Queen Victoria in September 1855 that 'the discipline in our army had got too lax - everybody having become too good-natured.' When Fenton's Crimean photographs were exhibited in Pall Mall in 1855, a reviewer took note of this particular photograph, mentioning that 'we have the winner of the Crimean cup - ignoble to look at, but said to be one of the best that ever went before a tail.' The title of this photograph is transcribed from an annotation on the mount.

Captain Frederick Morgan, son of Sir Charles Morgan, Baron Tredegar, served in the Rifle corps as aide-de-camp to General Bernard. 'Coxcomb' (the horse in the photograph) belonged to General Bernard. In her Journal kept during the Russian War published in 1855, Frances Duberly described 'Mr. Morgan, of the Rifle Brigade' winning a race on May 21 1855 while riding Coxcomb; presumably this photograph relates to that occasion.