Amazon.com description: Product Description: William Simpson was born in the slums of Glasgow on the 28th October 1823. Despite receiving very little formal education, his early talents as an artist shone through and in later life he was to find recognition as a famous war correspondent and water colourist. In 1851 he moved to London and found employment as a Special Artist with Day and Son, one of the largest and most prominent lithography firms of the nineteenth century. He was sent to the Baltic, and then the Crimea to record the spectacular battle scenes, and it was there that he earned the name "Crimean Simpson". Later he worked for the Illustrated London News and continued working with the fi rm until his death.