"Smartness"
Major General Hugh Richard Dawnay
8th Viscount Downe
1844-1924

Accession number:
1996.04

Maker:
Sir Leslie Matthew Ward
(1851-1922). Published by Vanity Fair

Historical period:
October 27, 1883

Miltary branch:

Wars and Conflicts:
,

Dimensions:
H x W: 13.5 in. / 8.5 in.

Acquisition date:
N/A

Credit line:
The Army and Navy Club Library Trust Fund

Location:
,

Provenance:
N/A

Label:

Vanity Fair has been the title of at least five different magazines. The second was a British weekly published from 1868 to 1914, where this print originated. Subtitled "A Weekly Show of Political, Social and Literary Wares," it was founded by Thomas Gibson Bowles, who aimed to expose the contemporary vanities of Victorian society. It offered its readership articles on fashion, current events, the theatre, books, social events and the latest scandals, together with serial fiction, word games and other trivia, and included notable contributors such as Lewis Carroll and P. G. Wodehouse. It regularly published caricatures of notable English men and women of the day, including statesmen, military figures, princes and sovereigns, and even racehorses.

Major General Hugh Richard Dawnay was a British Army General and president of the Marleybone Cricket Club. He fought in the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, for which he was mentioned in despatches. From 1899 to 1900 he was a staff officer in the Second Boer War in South Africa. His Commander-in-Chief stated that he “discharged his duties with tact and discretion.”