Henry Gales (also referred to as ‘G. H. Gales’) is known only for his painting ‘The Derby Cabinet Resolving Upon the Abyssinian Expedition’, which was exhibited at Mr E. Grindley’s Fine Art Gallery, Church Street, Liverpool, in January 1869 and at Mr. Cranfield’s, Grafton Street, Dublin, in September that year. A review of the work, published while it was on show in Dublin, referred to it as a ‘design by John Gilbert’ and reported ‘It is the first effort in a large painting which Mr. Gales has made’. Gales may have been a pupil of Gilbert. A watercolour of the scene by Gales, which is presumably the painting exhibited in 1869, was lent by Baroness Kinloss to the ‘Victorian Era’ exhibition (1897) and is now in the National Portrait Gallery.
