Wallace Collection

 Before my work meeting in the City today, I had time for a quick visit to the Wallace Collection in Hertford House, Manchester Square. This is the former townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquesses of Hertford. The collection is named after Sir Richard Wallace, who, along with the Marquesses of Hertford, built the extensive collection in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

There is a vast collection of paintings, including many old masters by Rembrandt and others.

There are many on military themes, of which the Laughing Cavalier is probably the most recognisable.

There are a few with Napoleonic interest.

And plenty of Balkan-related paintings. Countless paintings of Venice by Canalleto and others, plus Ottoman troops of the 19th century. These include a corsair and a bashi bazouk by Vernet.

They also have one of the finest collections of arms and armour I have seen. Not the largest, but it includes many rare items. The Ottoman and Indian displays are fantastic.

The European armour displays are also impressive.

Not to be missed if you are in London.

Apsley House

I am in London today on a work trip. With a spare hour or so, I decided to visit Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington's London pad. It is a magnificent building near Hyde Park Corner, which Wellington bought in 1819. It is crammed full of Wellington's massive art collection, which comprises nearly 1,000 items.

Impressive though the Reubens and Goyas are, the military paintings and memorabilia were the target of my attention.

There are several of the Duke himself, with this being the most recognisable. 

And his primary foe is not forgotten, with a couple of recognisable classics.

The Battle of Waterloo is depicted in several classics, including the Highlanders' squares fighting off the French cuirassiers.

Wellington wasn't big on delegation, but his divisional commanders are represented, including Graham, Padget and Beresford.

As are the allies, including a flattering painting of Tsar Alexander and a less-than-flattering one of Francis.

It's not all paintings. Wellington's dress uniforms, several French eagles, a room full of presents, and a pair of wellies!

Well worth a look if you are in London.

Jane Haining - A Life of Love and Courage

 The Renfrewshire UNISON branch in Scotland has a Holocaust Memorial project remembering the only Scot who died in a Nazi concentration camp – Jane Haining. UNISON Renfrewshire branch secretary Mark Ferguson said: 'The memorial work we’ve done over the past few years on Jane Haining has been very humbling, and having the opportunity to build a relationship with her family has been so special. We are working on telling the story of someone who lived and worked in our community for a long time, and it’s an incredible story.'

I recently spoke with them about helping with a proposed education pack to support the project's development. I had heard about her story, which has been covered in the Scottish media and was the subject of a BBC documentary. However, for more detail, I turned to Mary Miller's book.

Jane Haining (1897 – 1944) was a Scottish missionary for the Church of Scotland in Budapest, Hungary, who was recognised in 1997 by Yad Vashem in Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for having risked her life to help Jews during the Holocaust. 

Jane came from a small village near Dumfries and went to work in Paisley, hence the link to the Renfrewshire UNISON branch. She was active in the Church of Scotland, and in 1932, she was appointed matron for the girls' hostel attached to its Jewish mission school in Budapest. While there was anti-semitism in Hungary driven by its own fascist party, refugees poured into the country from Germany. Hungary adopted its own anti-Jewish legislation in 1938, along the lines of the Nazi Nuremberg laws. This process accelerated with the outbreak of war, even though Hungary was neutral. Jane was advised to return to Scotland, but she decided to stay to care for the children. 

In December 1941, Britain declared war on Hungary in response to its role in the invasion of the Soviet Union. This made it even more difficult for the school, but Jane continued with her work. That all changed when the Nazis marched into Budapest on 19 March 1944, to stop Hungary pulling out of the war. Jane was denounced by a local Hungarian Nazi to the Gestapo, who arrested her. She was sent to Auschwitz, arriving there on 15 May 1944. We know very little about her time in the camps, and her last letter is dated 15 July 1944. She was probably murdered on 17 July in the gas chambers. The Germans claimed she died in the hospital. 430,000 Hungarian Jews were deported and murdered.

While she is known as the Scot who died at Auschwitz, it is also essential to understand what she did with her life and those she helped. As one of her friends put it, 'If we can do anything in any small measure that Jane did, our world will be a different and much better place.'

What If America had been Ottoman?

 An article in Türkiye Today inspired a bit of what-if wargame fun. In 1484, a few years before Columbus's famous journey to America in 1492, he approached the Ottoman court after being turned down by the Portuguese. He presented his petition to Sultan Bayezid II, asking for ships to sail westward and discover new lands in the sultan's name. Sadly, the sultan was preoccupied with internal and external challenges, not least a challenge from his brother Cem. 

OpenAI depiction of the meeting. I doubt he would have got to eyeball the sultan!

But what if he decided to help Columbus? This could have led to the Ottoman colonisation of North America and possibly Central and South America as well. Think of all the countries that speak Spanish today, instead of communicating in Turkish.

British colonists from Elizabeth onwards might have faced attacks from Ottoman garrisons. Think Border Wars with Jannisaries!

Forget the American War of Independence, because there would be more Turkish settlers, as the Ottomans did in some of their Mediterranean and Balkan conquests. They may also have decided to add Canada to the Ottoman Empire, a new War of 1812. Here we have Canadian militia facing Janissaries and Levend infantry.

European migration would have been difficult to stop, and the Ottomans were generally relaxed about it, as long as the migrants were loyal to the state. The Millet system would have been interesting in North America. However, rebellions would be inevitable as nationalism grew in the 19th century. Here we have Nizam and Redif troops attacking a rebel position.

Of course, the problem with counterfactual history is that it breaks down one or more stages after the event. But for fun, we could delve into WW1, and so on. I am tempted to dust down my South American Wars of Liberation figures for a revolt against the Ottoman Empire in South America.

Fast and Loose

 The latest in my Nigel Tranter project is out of the ordinary. It was one of his early novels, written in 1951, and instead of covering a broad sweep of Scottish history, it focuses on the events of one small clan in north west Scotland, in the early years of the 18th century.

Tranter bases his story around the eldest son of the clan chief of MacColl, coming back from a grand tour of Europe, although confusingly the cover says he was a hostage at the King's court. Having been robbed, he and his foster brother capture a boat in Dunbarton to get them home. They arrive to find his younger brother Cormac has locked up his father and taken over the clan, and his beloved. The story revolves around the measures he takes to win back the clan.

Tranter usually sticks pretty close to the history, sometimes inventing characters to narrate the story. However, he has invented a whole new history for the MacColls. The place names in the book don't exist, and he has placed them much further north than their traditional territory around Loch Fyne. The MacColls are probably a sept of the MacDonalds (Coll being a popular MacDonald first name) and, like many smaller clans, were squeezed out by the Campbells. After being almost wiped out in the 17th century, they settled in Appin and fought in the 1745 rising as part of the Appin Regiment. One-third of those killed in the regiment had the surname MacColl.

I won't spoil the plot, as this is almost totally fiction. Tranter paints a more realistic picture of clan life and the fighting capabilities of the average member than popular myth. The young MacColl has many challenges in gathering the forces needed to win back his birthright, and his journey takes him across northern Scotland, with Tranter's remarkable ability to describe the scenery. It all makes a cracking read. 

Some of my better-equipped Highlanders of the period

The Jacobite Rising of 1715 and the Murray Family

 For some reason, I have always been more interested in the early Jacobite uprisings than the better-known '45, with Bonnie Prince Charlie et al. This book by Rosalind Anderson was in the Naval and Military sale, and it tied in well with my current stage in the Nigel Tranter project.

The Murray family played a key role in the Jacobite rebellions, although in 1715, they had a foot in both camps. The Duke of Atholl stayed loyal to the Hanoverian Succession, but his sons did not. Contrary to popular myth, the Jacobite rebellions were not Catholic v Protestant affairs. The majority of rebels were, in fact, Episcopalians. The Murrays are a good example of this.

If you are looking for a narrative history of the 1715 rebellion, this book is not it. The author's focus is on the family and their relationships with each other. The author had access to their contemporary letters, or at least those that have survived. Blair Atholl Castle is one of Scotland's best preserved castles and is well worth a visit, just off the A9 if you are heading north. The Duke of Atholl still has his Atholl Highlanders based at the castle, the only legal private army in Europe.

The evidence from these letters clearly paints a picture of the sons acting independently rather than a planned family strategy to keep a foot in both camps. Having spent some time myself trying to decipher 18th-century handwriting in archives, this is an impressive piece of research. The problem is that many of the exchanges are really not that interesting. However, they do show the influence of the women in the family, something that is not always apparent in 18th-century history.

The last few chapters cover the action in the 1715 rebellion and the Battle of Sheriffmuir. The one common factor in all the rebellions was the weather. Every rising was cursed by the weather, which impacted the arrival, or not, of French ships. There was a similar issue with Spanish troops in the 1719 rising, which ended in the Battle of Glen Shiel.

This is an interesting piece of family history, and worth a read if you are planning a visit. However, for a history of the 1715 and 1719 risings, I would look elsewhere. Stuart Reid's, Sheriffmuir 1715, is a good starting point.

Some of my 28mm forces of the period.

Russian 18th Century Army project

Another project finished, or as near finished as any wargame army ever is. I have been building Russian forces (I have the Ottomans) for the Russo-Ottoman wars of the second half of the 18th century, and now have enough to call a halt. I am also expanding my 8mm Ottomans to match my Adler Austrian and Russian armies for the same conflict. That is also nearly done, with just the Levend to base. 

For the 1768 war, the Russian army looked like its Seven Years' War force. I have based them individually, with movement trays from Warbases, so they work for my main rules for the period, Black Powder, Lust for Glory and Rebels and Patriots.

The infantry are from the Claymore Castings and Foundry ranges. Grenadiers and line infantry with artillery and battalion guns. The flags are from GMB. I would have liked some Jagers, but no one does them yet.

For the 1787 war, there would still have been tricorne infantry, but in the south, they primarily wore the Potemkin uniforms. These did away with powdered hair and had a distinctive helmet. I got these from North Star, although it looks as if I got the last of their stock. The flags are from Flags of War.

The cavalry will work for both wars, although they abandoned the cuirass in 1787, and dragoons were renamed Carabiniers, to reflect the heavier horses issued based on Seven Years' War experience. The Don Cossacks were becoming more regular, but plenty of irregular types as well. These mostly come from the Foundry and Crusader ranges.

There will be plenty on how the armies were organised in my latest book, which covers both wars and the interregnum. There is also a wargaming annexe with a few scenarios. We have a cover, which I am very pleased with. No release date yet, hopefully a couple of months at the most.