John Charlton (artist)

Due to his family's financial misfortunes, he had to attend Dr. Sharp's charity school held in Bamburgh's great castle, and a few years later, was forced to quit and find employment.

While he settled in the capital, he never forgot his northern roots, maintaining a house at 24 Windsor Terrace, Newcastle, and at one time lived at Cullercoats, while his final years were spent at Lanercost in Cumbria.

Exposed to the wealth of military illustration he decided to try his hand at creating a large painting on canvas using a war theme, and in 1883 exhibited British artillery entering the enemy’s lines at Tel-el-Kebir, 13 September 1882.

Spurred on by the success of this work which "opened up for him a field in which he could find freer scope for his artistic sense of vivid movement and powerful action in both horse and figure-painting, and exercise for his keen imagination," he chose another military scene for his 1887 academy piece.

For his next military subject, Charlton turned once again to men and horses in battle with a theme from the Zulu War: After the charge: 17th Lancers, Ulundi, 4 July 1879, which was shown at Burlington House in 1888.

An Incident in the charge of the Light Brigade was shown at the academy in 1889, while in 1897 came Comrades, showing just two figures, a trooper of the 17th Lancers lying dead on the field while his horse rears in agony having been hit by a bullet.

Tredegar also supplied the sketch for the artist's 1905 picture, Balaclava: The Charge of the Light Brigade showing the 17th Lancers crashing into the Russian guns, that was reproduced as the Christmas Supplement to The Graphic.

Nonetheless, his paintings are dramatic and well-executed with careful attention to detail, and he certainly ranks among his contemporaries, Richard Caton Woodville, James Princip Beadle and William Barnes Wollen as one of Britain's preeminent 'battle' painters of the late Victorian period.