TYPES OF THE BRITISH ARMY
By Richard Simkin
Richard Simkin 1851-1926
Despite being one of the most prolific military artists of the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, little is known of his life. He was born on November 5th 1851 in Herne Bay in the county of Kent, South East England. His formative years were spent in Aldershot, Hampshire and by the mid-1880s he was married with children. He began his artistic career in about 1875 and from then on must have produced illustrations of the British Army by the thousands. At one time he painted recruiting posters for the War Office. Sometime after the turn of the century, he returned to Herne Bay where he died in 1926. His illustrations now fill books and print portfolios as well as living room and regimental mess walls all over the world.
His defining work was his series of 'Types of the British Army' which were published as monthly supplements of the Army and Navy Gazette beginning in 1888 and ending in about 1902. During this period he produced 176 plates depicting every regiment of the regular British Army plus the Yeomanry and many Indian and Colonial troops.
No single book or website has ever produced the entire Army & Navy Gazette collection. We will try and do this here beginning with the cavalry.
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
