Sir Vincent Eyre (1811-1881) was born in Portsdown near Portsmouth on 22 January 1811, the third son of Captain Henry Eyre. He attended Norwich Grammar School, and entered the Military Academy at Addiscombe, joining the artillery of the company in 1828. He was gazetted to the Bengal establishment, and arrived in India in 1829. In 1839 he was appointed Commissary of Ordnance to the Cabul field force. Eyre and his family were captured by Afghan rebels led by Akbar Khan in January 1842. They spent nearly nine months in captivity, during which time Eyre kept a diary of his experiences and made portraits of the officers and women he encountered. The family was rescued in September 1843, and the following year Eyre was appointed to command the artillery of the new Gwalior contingent. He took part in the relief of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and was made Lieutenant-Colonel that year, and Lieutenant-General in 1863. He died at Aix-les-Bains on 22 September 1881.