A half-length portrait, slightly to the right, showing Pigott in his commander's full dress uniform of the 1879-91 pattern; the 'Inconstant' is in the right background. This posthumus painting is signed and dated 1886. The painting was presented to Greenwich Hospital by his fellow officers of the 'Inconstant'.
Alfred Pigott joined the Navy in 1861 and served in the 'Marlborough', 120 guns in the Mediterranean and in the 'Inconstant' during her first commission. He was second lieutenant of the training ship 'Britannia' in 1877. He was wounded in the leg while serving ashore in the Niger River in 1881. The following year he became first lieutenant of the 'Alexandra', the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleeet; he was present at the bombardment of Alexandria. Pigott was killed in action at Abu Klea during the Sudan campaign of 1885. A memorial plaque to him can be found in St Anne's Church, Portsmouth. It is inscribed: 'In memory of Commander Alfred Pigott RN killed at Abu Klea, January 17th 1885. Presented by the officers of HMS 'Inconstant' 1869-72 to commemorate his brave, modest and unselfish character'.
At the Battle of Abu Klea, the British forces consisted of the 1100 men of the Desert Column under Sir Herbert Stewart, against a Sudanese force of approximately 12,000 fighters. While the main British force (the River Column), led by General Sir Garnet Wolseley, travelled on the Nile from Korti to Khartoum, Stewart’s column was to cut across country directly for Khartoum, speed being of the essence. The force comprised of four regiments of camel-mounted troops (the Guards, Heavy, Light and Mounted Infantry), formed from detachments of the various regiments in Egypt and the River Column, and a further detachment of the 19th Hussars, mounted on horses. Four light field pieces and a small Naval Brigade of 40 men from HMS ‘Alexandra’ manning a Gardner machine gun, of which Pigott was a part, completed the force.
The Sudanese attacked as the British approached the wells at Abu Klea. The Gardner gun was brought to bear on the advancing Sudanese line, but it jammed after firing only 70 rounds. The Naval Brigade was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Sudanese and Pigott, Lieutenant Rudolph de Lisle, Chief Boatswain’s Mate Bill Rhodes and five other seamen were killed with another seven were wounded. The fighting lasted for some fifteen minutes; superior British fire forcing the Sudanese to withdraw. The British lost nine officers and 65 men; the Sudanese dead numbered over a thousand.