Captain and Mrs Willis

An inked inscription in a period hand on the reverse of the mount identifies the sitters as ‘Capt. and Mrs Willis / 33rd Regiment.’

Charles Whateley Willis is listed as a Lieutenant serving in the 33rd (The Duke of Wellington's) Regiment of Foot in Hart's Army List of 1859. He had served at the siege of Sebastopol during the Crimean and taken part in the assaults on the Redan on 18 June and 8 September 1855. Wounded (Medal and Clasp). According to The London Gazette he became a Captain (by purchase) on 21 February 1860.

On 30 March 1865 Charles Whateley Willis 'of Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire' married Mary Jane Swining 'of St Clements Dane, Middlesex.' The marriage took place at the British Embassy in Paris.