Artist: Diana Hill about 1791Lieutenant Thomas Harriott (1753-1817)

After the death of her first husband, Diana Hill married Lieutenant Thomas Harriott of the First Native Infantry in 1788. The First Regiment evolved from the ‘oldest corps in Bengal’ and was ‘raised’ (founded) in Kolkata (Calcutta) in January 1757. In 1765, it became the first unit to be regularly clothed in red tunics giving the unit its name ‘Lal-Pultan’, the Red Battalion. In February 1806, Thomas resigned his commission and the family returned to England, taking up residence at West Hall, Mortlake. By this time Diana had given up painting.

In eighteenth-century Britain, portrait miniatures were exchanged between loved ones and family, as tokens of affection and remembrance. In colonial India, where many officers were separated from loved ones for long periods of time, there was demand for portraits that could be sent to friends and family back home, or that could document and preserve their likeness for those travelling abroad. Hill painted the portraits of many central figures of the British community in Kolkata (Calcutta).