Waterloo Veteran Portrait Reidentified by National Army Museum
October 22 2025
Picture: National Army Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Army Museum in London has shared new research which has revealed the sitter of a previously unidentified portrait relating to the Napoleonic period. The painting, which was acquired by the museum last year for £30,000 (sans attribution and identity), decpits Pte Thomas James a percussionist in the 18th Light Dragoons who was awarded the Waterloo medal.
According to The Guardian article linked above:
He fought in the Napoleonic wars and is one of only nine Black soldiers known to have received the Waterloo Medal, the first British medal awarded to soldiers regardless of their rank.
Yet the story of Pte Thomas James has been overlooked for centuries.
Now the National Army Museum in London has identified James as the likely subject of an “extraordinarily rare” painting from 1821, which it has attributed to the artist Thomas Phillips, whose more typical sitters were Georgian luminaries such as the Duke of Wellington and Lord Byron.
The portrait will be unveiled to the public on Tuesday at the museum’s “Army at Home” gallery in Chelsea, where it will be placed on permanent display to highlight the service of James and other Black soldiers during the Napoleonic wars.
