Highland officers

A carte-de-visite portrait of three officers serving in Highland regiments.

The man seated on the ground is Henry Frederick Rowley (1839-1874), an Ensign with the 79th Highlanders (the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders) from 1861 to 1865 and then a Lieutenant with the 78th Highlanders (the Ross-shire Buffs). While serving in India he contracted hepatitis. Although he later served in Canada, he resigned from the army in 1870, shortly after his marriage, and died in 1874, aged only 35.

The man seen here on the right is, according to his cap badge, serving in the 42nd Highlanders (the Black Watch). According to another example of this portrait in an album I've seen, he is Henry ('Harry') Richard Stanhope Foley (1845-1874), who joined the regiment by purchase on 14 June 1864 and retired with the rank of Lieutenant in March 1869. He was subsequently a Captain in the West Kent Militia. He also died in 1874, aged only 29.

According to the same album, the third man is James Dalgleish Kellie-McCallum (1845-1932), who joined the 79th Foot (the Cameron Highlanders) by purchase on 26 May 1865 but was later attached to the 42nd Regiment (the Black Watch) during the Third Anglo-Ashanti War (1873-1874). He retired with the rank of Lieutenant in September 1876. He died, aged 87, on 7 September 1932 at Quinton in Northamptonshire, leaving an estate valued at £10,390.

Photographed by George Washington Wilson of Aberdeen.