Major-General Sir Charles Philip Belson KCB (1773-1830), 1827 (miniature on ivory)

Major-General Sir Charles Philip Belson KCB (1773-1830), 1827. Miniature portrait in watercolour on ivory, signed and dated lower right ‘Kern 1827’, probably Matthias Kern (1800-1852), 1827. Charles Belson served with the 3rd West India Regiment from 1793 to 1794 and took part in the landing at Helder in 1799. He was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of Foot, in November 1804 and remained in that post until 1808 when he took command of the 1st Battalion, taking part in the Walcheren campaign of 1809. Belson commanded the 1st Battalion in the Peninsular War (1807-1814) for which he was awarded the Army Gold Medal with two clasps. During the Waterloo Campaign he served at the Battle of Quatre Bras on 16 June 1815, where his regiment resisted the repeated charges of French Cavalry. When Sir Thomas Picton was killed during the Battle of Waterloo two days later, Belson’s Brigade Commander Sir James Kempt assumed control of Picton’s Fifth Division. Belson then succeeded to the vacant command of Kempt’s 8th Infantry Brigade, leading it throughout the rest of the action. Promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the 56th Foot in May 1816, he was made a major-general in August 1819.