Sergeant Major Matthew Bailey

Photograph of Sergeant Major Matthew Bailey standing facing partly left, looking at the camera. He is wearing cavalry uniform with two medals and a metal helmet with a plume. Both hands are resting on his sword. This photograph, printed by Jabez Hughes in 1883, is a carbon print pasted over the original photograph.

Sergeant Major Matthew Bailey served with the 1st (Royal) Dragoons during the Crimean War. He was one of the men seen by Queen Victoria at Aldershot Garrison in 1856. Throughout the war she had taken an active interest in the welfare of the troops and on their return from the Crimea she met a number of the veterans at Buckingham Palace, Chatham Military Hospital and Aldershot Garrison. Following these meetings she commissioned a series of photographs of the veterans from the photographers Joseph Cundall and Robert Howlett.