Ensign Stuart Lloyd Richards
(1841-1905)

[The portrait does not appear in the Silvy daybooks in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery. The sitting probably took place between July 1863 and June 1864, the period covered by the missing volume of the daybooks.]

Born on 4 February 1841 at Farlington in Hampshire, Stuart Lloyd Richards was the eldest son of Reverend Edward Tew Richards, Rector of Farlington, and Horatia née Haslewood.

On completing his education at the Royal Military College he joined the Army in 1862, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the service of the 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot.

On 19 September 1872, at St Anne’s Church in Alderney, Lieutenant Stuart Lloyd Richards married Alice Florence Clucas Shorland, youngest daughter of surgeon Thomas Shorland of Alderney in the Channel Isles (Pall Mall Gazette, 21 September 1874). Their marriage produced five children, including two daughters who died in India during their infancy.

Lieutenant-Colonel Richards, late 2nd Battalion (17th) Leicestershire Regiment, died ‘very suddenly from heart failure,’ aged 64, on 4 May 1905 at 2 Preston Road, Southport, Lancashire. 'He joined H.M.’s 17th Foot (Leicestershire) in Canada in the early part of 1862, and retired from the Army in July, 1888, the last 11 years of his service being spent in India’ (Portsmouth Evening News, 6 May 1905).

He was buried in Duke Street Cemetery, Southport. His estate was valued at £8540.

[A pencilled inscription verso in a period hand reads: 'With my love for the young lady with the ring, begging for hers in exchange.']