Identified as Miss MacGregor in the Silvy daybooks, on the reverse of the mount the sitter is identified as Mrs. R. Wilmot Brooke. In the album from which this portrait came, it appeared opposite one of her husband, which was titled on the album page Major Brooke of the 60th Rifles. The Army List for 1862-1863 provides his full name. The couple were married in 1863.

They appear on the 1881 census, at No. 2, Vanburgh Park, Greenwich, the home of Mrs Brooke's father, retired General Duncan MacGregor K.C.B. Also present on the night of the census were their sons, Graham and Eardley. Mrs Brooke was born in Scotland.

Her death was announced in the Times on 4 August 1883: "On 28th July, at Oak Lodge, Blackheath, after a long illness. Elizabeth Joanna Anne, the beloved wife of Lt. Colonel R. Wilmot Brooke, late 60th Rifles."

Mrs Brooke was 52 at the time of her death, so she was born in or about 1831. Her husband remarried two years later.