‘Hospital on Heyder [sic] Pacha - Scutari’ (w/c)

‘Hospital on Heyder [sic] Pacha - Scutari’. Watercolour by Second Lieutenant W T Markham (1830-1886), 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade, 1854 circa. At the start of the Crimean War (1854-1856) the Selimiye Barracks at Scutari was initially used by the British Army as camp for troops en route to the Crimea, but it was soon converted into a temporary military hospital. Unfortunately the new facility did not have the capacity to cope with the huge number of casualties and sick men who arrived. Reports flooded back to Britain about the appalling conditions and this provoked the famous nursing expedition lead by Florence Nightingale. From an album of watercolour paintings and sketches by Colonel William Markham, 1820 circa and Second Lieutenant William Thomas Markham (1830-1886), 2nd Battalion, Rifle Brigade.