This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

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Record of historical events

Victoria and Albert collected photographs that documented the political and military events that defined a period of global expansion

CHARLES THURSTON THOMPSON (1816-68)

Military Prisons, Boulogne

c. 1857

Albumen print | 16.3 x 27.5 cm (image) | RCIN 2500821

Photograph of three triangular-shaped thatched huts with a thatched sentry box and three piles of rifles in front of them. A low building with a sloped roof is visible in the middle ground, on the left, on the edge of the cliff with the sea beyond.

  • Creator(s)

    Charles Thurston Thompson (1816-68) (photographer)

    Subject(s)

    Army-France-Infantry

  • 16.3 x 27.5 cm (image)

  • Military prisons, Boulogne. [Boulogne and Aldershot, c. late 1850s].

  • Acquired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

  • Subject(s)
    • Places
      • Europe
        • France
          • Boulogne-sur-Mer [Pas-de-Calais]
    Object type(s)
      • visual works
        • photographs
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