Henry Arthur Herbert

A carte-de-visite portrait of Henry Arthur Herbert (1840-1901) of the Coldstream Guards.

Henry Arthur Herbert was the eldest son of Henry Arthur Herbert of Muckross, Kilarney, and his wife, the water-colourist Mary Balfour Herbert. Born in or about 1840, he entered the Coldstream Guards in 1857 as an Ensign / Lieutenant, by purchase from Sir William Forbes, Bart. According to Hart’s Army List (1863), he was promoted to Lieutenant / Captain on 9 November 1862.

The regiment is ranked second in the order of precedence, behind the Grenadier Guards, the Grenadier Guards having served the Crown for longer. However, the Coldstream Guards is an older regiment, having been formed by Colonel Monck as part of the New Model Army. The regiment is always referred to as the Coldstream, never as the Coldstreams, likewise a member of the regiment is referred to as a Coldstreamer.

Henry Arthur Herbert’s brief obituary appeared in the Times on Monday 19 August 1901, according to which he died ‘on the 14th inst. at Thornborough House, Watford, after a few days’ illness…., aged 61’.

Photographed by Camille Silvy on 6 October 1860.