BROKEN GUARDSMEN
The wounded and sick of the Guards Brigade were not treated in the same way as the men of the line. They would not be seen wandering around the disembarkation ports waiting for transport – wounded were taken by train to London and attended to at the Guards hospital in Rochester Row, Westminster. Their return in 1855 was in stark contrast to the enthusiastic scenes of their departure in February 1854.
Once at Rochester Row the invalids were sent to the rooms designated for their regiments. The queen felt a close personal relationship to ‘her’ Guards. They were visited by the Duke of Cambridge at the end of February 1855 and, like the line, photographed. Group portraits of the Guards invalids seem to have been preferred to individual portraits.
On 20 February the queen wrote of
