Victoria & Albert: Our Lives in Watercolour
The watercolours collected by Victoria and Albert documented their lives, private and official, together
GEORGE HOUSMAN THOMAS (1824-68)
The bell brought from Sebastopol, at Aldershot
dated 1856Watercolour and bodycolour over pencil on buff paper | 24.6 x 34.8 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 916804
A watercolour showing an open country, with a hutted camp in the middle distance. To the left, a bellcote, with two bells, ornamented with reliefs of saints, taken from the Church of the Twelve Apostles at Sebastopol. Signed and dated.
At the close of the war two large bells were taken from the Church of the Twelve Apostles at Sebastopol. One was placed on the North Terrace of Windsor Castle, before being moved to the Round Tower where it still hangs; it is struck only to toll the death of the Sovereign. The other was placed overlooking the south camp at Aldershot, as can be seen here. It is now located on Hospital Road in Aldershot.