East Riding Museums

This item is in the Burton Constable Hall collections and is included on this database by kind permission of the Burton Constable Foundation. Charles Chichester of Calverleigh Court in Devon married his cousin Mary Barbara, the daughter of Sir Thomas Hugh Clifford Constable of Burton Constable Hall, in 1821. He embarked on a military career in 1811 and, in 1835, joined the British Auxiliary Legion as Brigadier-General fighting under the command of General De Lacy Evans in the First Carlist War. (With the suspension of the Foreign Enlistment Bill, British soldiers were at liberty to fight in Spain.) He proved a distinguished and gallant soldier throughout the war and was commended for his services to the Queen of Spain with the grand cross of San Fernando, and the third and first class decorations of Isabella the Catholic and Charles III, and was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1840. Sir Charles may have sat for his portrait whilst visiting France during the 1830s. The sculptor was evidently accomplished and portrays a gallant young man in his prime. Located in the Staircase Hall.