Godfrey Douglas Giles (1857-1941) British, Chromolithograph. Signed and dated 1888 in print bottom right. Title bottom middle below print: "Royal Engineers." Originally published by J.S. Virtue & Co., London in 1890. 

Overall: 18 1/2 X 16 in. 

Sight: 9 1/2 X 7 1/4 in. 

#3877 . 

Godfrey Douglas Giles was born on November 9th, 1857 in Karachi, Pakistan. His father was Captain Edward Giles of the Royal Navy, who had been stationed there for several years. Giles attended the Cheltenham Boarding School and then the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, with his military career beginning with a posting in India in 1875. He saw action in the Second Afghan War with the 1st Sind Horse and the 19th Native Infantry, chiefly on the Khleat and Kandahar fronts, and was present at Maiwand and the battle of Khuski-Nakhud in February 1879. While convalescing from an injury he took up painting to pass the time, and found himself naturally drawn to oils, creating striking battle scenes. He painted the Charge of the Scinde Horse at Khuski-Nakhud, and then accompanied the Gordon Relief Expedition to Sudan and commanded Turkish cavalry at El Teb. Giles also provided a sketch of the battle which was the basis for a large fold-out panorama of the battle published in The Graphic in 1884, and began painting a scene of the battle when he returned to Cairo shortly after the event. He was also present at the battle of Tamai, and later received a commission from Lieutenant P.S. Marling of the 60th Rifles depicting the latter saving Private Morley of the 35th Regiment, for which Marling received the Victoria Cross. Subsequently, Giles served as captain in the Loyal Suffolk Hussars and the Artists' Rifle Corps. Having attained the rank of Major, Giles retired from the Army in 1884 and traveled to Paris in 1885, where he studied under Carolus-Duran. He successfully exhibited paintings such as The Battle of Tamai and El Teb at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy, then settled in Newmarket where he began to depict horses and horse-racing scenes. His illustrations also appeared in the weekly Black & White Budget in 1891. In 1893 he painted a scene of the E/B Battery Royal Horse Artillery at Maiwand, which was drawn from verbal details supplied by RSM Paton and Sergeant Mullane, VC who had been with the battery, demonstrating Giles' skill at painting both from memory and with the use of his imagination. After the outbreak of the Boer War in South Africa in 1899 Giles was sent there as war correspondent and artist by The Graphic and the Daily Graphic, and was attached to French's 1st Cavalry Brigade. He witnessed the surrender of General Piet Cronjé after the Battle of Paardeberg, and was present at the subsequent relief of Kimberley. Later he wrote a piece for The Graphic titled "With French to Kimberley and Roberts to Bloemfontein" which appeared in The Graphic History of the South African War. Giles contributed greatly to the pictorial record of the Boer War with works still on display in museums in both South Africa and England. He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal on 12 February 1903. By the 1910s he was famous throughout the entire British Empire for his vivid, detailed military scenes, particularly since he had experienced so many of them firsthand in India, Afghanistan, Egypt, and South Africa. He died in Edinburgh, Scotland on February 1st, 1941.