CANNING. A cdv portrait of the 1st Viceroy of India

An early carte de visite on the photographer’s card of Mayall, 224 Regent Street, London, probably taken shortly before his death in June 1862. The image shows the earl seated in a rather different pose from the more frontal one by Mayall often reproduced in prints. A somewhat underrated governor general who oversaw during his period in office the War with Persia, the annexation of Oude, the Mutiny, and the transfer of power from the East India Company to the Crown. His measured reaction to the Mutiny was firm but his distaste for the harsher acts of retribution earned him some unpopularity and the nickname Clemency Canning in those distressing times. The death from fever of his wife in November 1861 was a particularly distressing final blow and returning to England in March 1862 he died just two months later.  apr17/4