3-100-764 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

The Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (from life), before 1893. Lord Dufferin (1826-1902) was a British diplomat, Colonial administrator and artist. He served as Governor General of Canada and Viceroy of India. Dufferin invited Tennyson's son Lionel and his wife Eleanor to India when he was Viceroy in 1885. Tragically Lionel was to fall seriously ill and died the following year on the voyage back to Britain. In 1889 Tennyson was to write 'To the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava' a poem which addressed his son's death. From "Alfred, Lord Tennyson and His Friends A Series of 25 Portraits and Frontispiece in Photogravure From The Negatives Of Mrs. Julia Margaret Cameron And H.H.H. Cameron Reminiscences By Anne Thackeray Ritchie With Introduction by H.H. Hay Cameron" [London: 1893]