The Continuum of Command — Capturing Britain’s Field Marshals

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Field Marshal The Lord Houghton of Richmond – Portrait Sitting - Copyright © Rory Lewis Non Profit (Heroes in Focus), All Rights Reserved. The Heroes in Focus non-profit is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity. EIN 33-2920765 All contributions to Heroes in Focus are tax-deductible according to IRS regulations.

The year 2025 marks a defining milestone in my career as a portraitist and in the mission of the Rory Lewis Non-Profit: the capture of four living British Field Marshals—an achievement unparalleled in contemporary photographic history. This body of work joins the organization’s latest acquisition, the Presentation Portrait of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig(1928), symbolically uniting the early twentieth-century imagery of command with its living successors nearly a century later.

A Century Between the Baton and the Lens

The 1928 portrait of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig—acquired by the non-profit in September 2025—serves as both artistic inheritance and historical compass. Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force during the Great War, embodies the archetype of the modern Field Marshal: a figure caught between strategy and sacrifice, duty and humanity. To stand before his likeness today is to witness the dawn of military modernity rendered in oil and formality; to photograph his successors is to translate that gravitas into light, texture, and time.

Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig

by Bassano Ltd
whole-plate glass negative, 19 July 1921 (Acquired by Rory Lewis Non Profit (Heroes in Focus 2025) - Copyright © Rory Lewis Non Profit (Heroes in Focus), All Rights Reserved. The Heroes in Focus non-profit is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity. EIN 33-2920765 All contributions to Heroes in Focus are tax-deductible according to IRS regulations.

A Modern Lineage Captured

My sittings with Field Marshal The Lord Guthrie (2017), H.R.H. The Duke of Kent (2018), Field Marshal The Lord Richards (2025), and Field Marshal The Lord Houghton of Richmond (2025) together form a visual continuum—charting the evolution of command from the Cold War to the present reign of His Majesty The King.

Each portrait represents more than a likeness; it is a dialogue between eras. Guthrie’s portrait stands at the threshold between analogue tradition and digital clarity. The Duke of Kent’s sitting bridges monarchy and service, ceremony and humility. The 2025 portraits of Richards and Houghton—appointed under a renewed royal conferral of the five-star rank—affirm a modern return to symbolic leadership grounded in reflection rather than campaign.

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Field Marshal The Lord Houghton of Richmond – Portrait Sitting
Field Marshal The Lord Houghton of Richmond – Portrait Sitting

On October 10, 2025, Rory Lewis welcomed Field Marshal The Lord Houghton of Richmond back to his London studio for a second portrait sitting, more than a decade after their first session in 2014. The portrait, part of Rory Lewis Non-Profit’s mission to document all living Field Marshals, captures Lord Houghton’s journey from active command to statesman. Commissioned into the Green Howards in 1974, Lord Houghton served in Northern Ireland, Iraq, and as Chief of the Defence Staff before being promoted to Field Marshal in 2025. The portrait, rendered in Lewis’s signature chiaroscuro style, reflects leadership, wisdom, and legacy.

Field Marshal Lord Richards — Portrait Sitting
Field Marshal Lord Richards — Portrait Sitting

Field Marshal David Julian Richards, Baron Richards of Herstmonceux, GCB, CBE, DSO, DL—appointed Honorary Field Marshal by His Majesty The King in June 2025—sat for my non-profit archive on Monday, 6 October 2025. This portrait marks a significant addition to our mission to document the living history of Britain’s senior military leadership through the art of portraiture.

🇬🇧 Remembering Field Marshal Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank 1928-2025
🇬🇧 Remembering Field Marshal Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank 1928-2025

Among the most meaningful moments in my non-profit archive was the privilege of photographing Field Marshal Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank. It was not simply a portrait sitting, but an encounter with a man whose life spanned the defining military and political chapters of modern Britain.

A Portrait of Duty: H.R.H. The Duke of Kent as Field Marshal
A Portrait of Duty: H.R.H. The Duke of Kent as Field Marshal

In 2018, I had the rare honour of photographing His Royal Highness, The Duke of Kent, in a portrait sitting that captured not only royal stature, but a lifetime of military service. Dressed in his ceremonial uniform as Field Marshal, His Royal Highness stood as a living symbol of dedication, discipline, and enduring legacy within the British Armed Forces.

Field Marshal The Lord Guthrie — Portrait Sitting
Field Marshal The Lord Guthrie — Portrait Sitting

One of the most meaningful opportunities through my non-profit archive has been the privilege of photographing senior figures within the British Armed Forces. Among these sittings, capturing a British Field Marshal stands as both an artistic milestone and a moment of profound historical significance.

The Weight of the Baton

British Field Marshal’s Baton — Portrait Sitting - Copyright © Rory Lewis Non Profit (Heroes in Focus), All Rights Reserved. The Heroes in Focus non-profit is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity. EIN 33-2920765 All contributions to Heroes in Focus are tax-deductible according to IRS regulations.

Throughout centuries, the baton of a Field Marshal has embodied the authority of the Crown and the trust of the nation. In my portraits, it functions as both literal and metaphorical axis—the thread that ties Haig’s generation to those who followed. Rendered through chiaroscuro, it becomes not merely an emblem of command but a measure of moral gravity.

In photographing these men—each carrying the accumulated history of command—I sought to illuminate not just their achievements but the introspection that accompanies them. The restraint, humility, and sense of stewardship that define the modern Field Marshal stand in deliberate contrast to the martial spectacle of earlier centuries.

Preservation and Legacy

To have now documented four holders of this rank places the Rory Lewis Non-Profit at a pivotal moment in its mission to create a permanent, educational archive of military portraiture. Together with the Haig acquisition, these works establish a bridge between historic depiction and living legacy—ensuring that the lineage of Britain’s highest military leadership is preserved with artistic and historical fidelity for future generations.

Through this ongoing work, I aim to restore the portrait to its rightful place as a vessel of remembrance and human insight—a form where history is not merely recorded, but felt.

— Rory Lewis
Founder & Photographer
Rory Lewis Non-Profit (Heroes in Focus)