Walter Fane (1828-85)
Watercolour | 47.0 x 31.0 cm (whole object) | RCIN 916755
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A watercolour portrait of Subadar Mooladad Khan, Sirdar Bahadur, an officer of the 20th Punjab Infantry: full-length, standing in profile to the right; with his sword braced under his left arm and held with his right hand; set against a rocky background. Signed, dated and inscribed, lower right: W. Fane 1882/ Subadar. Mooladad/ 20th. Punjab. infantry (an Afreeedie).
As the inscription on the watercolour indicates, Mooladad Khan was probably of the Afridi people, Pashtuns from the Khyber region of present-day Pakistan. He was appointed Subadar-Major, May 1882. He received the Indian Order of Merit, 1st Class, 1877; Order of British India, 1st Class, 1882, Companion of the Indian Empire, November 1882.
William Simpson, in his album of sketches made with the Afghan Boundary Commission, drew Subadar-Major 'Mowladed' in 1885 when he was among the detachment of the 20th Punjab Infantry who formed Sir Peter Lumsden's escort on the Afghan frontier. Simpson there notes that he had first met the officer at Jellalabad in 1879, under Sir Sam Browne, and again at Windsor in 1882, when he was decorated by Queen Victoria.
A contingent of Indian troops, who had fought with the British in the Egyptian Campaign in 1882, came to England and some, among them the men shown in RCIN 916755-916758, were invested with Orders by Queen Victoria. The Order of British India, 1st Class, carried with it the title of Sirdar Bahadur (roughly translated as 'Exalted Chief'), and the 2nd Class, that of Bahadur. Each of the men drawn by Fane received this order in November 1882. On 20 December the Queen wrote in her journal that she 'saw some very fine sketches of the Indian officers, by Gen: Fane' which were probably commissioned the previous month.
Walter Fane entered the service of the East India Company in 1845. He served in the Irregular Cavalry, 1849-57. He participated in the pursuit and capture of Ramchandra Panduranga (known as Tantia Tope) a leader during the Indian Rebellion, who was captured in Central India in 1859. Fane raised the regiment of Irregular Cavalry, Fane's Horse, and commanded it in the China War of 1860, in the engagement at Sinho and the capture of Peking. He was made a CB. Major General in 1879. William Simpson wrote that Fane was 'wellknown over the whole of the North-West for his ability as an artist. I have often said that he ought to have been an artist - Nature had meant him for that, and in saying so I meant no disrespect to his qualification as a soldier' (Simpson, pp.96-7). -
Medium and techniques
Watercolour
Measurements
47.0 x 31.0 cm (whole object)
Object type(s)
