The Camp of the Foreign Legion near Hythe, Kent 1855 (lithograph, colour)

The Camp of the Foreign Legion near Hythe, Kent, 1855. Colour lithograph by T Picken after unknown artist, printed by Day and Son, 1856 (c). In 1855, during the Crimean War (1854-1856), Great Britain raised a British German Legion of two regiments of light dragoons, three Jäger Corps, and six regiments of light infantry; a British Italian Legion of five regiments of infantry, and a British Swiss Legion of three regiments of light infantry. At the end of the war, these soldiers were entitled to return to their country of origin at the public expense, although some, fearing a hostile reception at home, settled in the Cape of Good Hope. When the first German and Swiss legionaries arrived in England in May and June 1855, they were lodged in Dover Castle, but friction between the two led to the Swiss being encamped on the Western Heights above Dover and the Germans being sent to Shorncliffe Camp, near Hythe, as pictured here.