3-078-273 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches at the Royal Military Tournament, Agricultural Hall, Islington: wrestling on horseback, 1890. 'The eleventh annual Military Tournament was opened by her Royal Highness the Duchess of Albany on Wednesday, June 18, the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo...some feats of skill, including the decapitation of sham heads mounted on poles, struck off by the swords of mounted soldiers at full gallop around the arena, lemon-cutting, tilting at the ring, and tent-pegging, were performed by non-commissioned officers and men of different regiments. There was also a combined movement of cavalry, infantry, mounted infantry, machine-guns, artillery, and engineers...The boys of the Duke of York's School, Chelsea, went through various evolutions, and performed the ceremony of "trooping the colour," followed by the musical dumb-bell drill by boys of the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich. The pupils of the Gordon Boys' Home, the Soldiers' Daughters' Home, the Guards' Home, the Royal Military Asylum, and the Royal Caledonian Asylum were present, and many old pensioners of Chelsea Hospital'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.