County Hall in Penrhyn Road, Kingston-upon-Thames is a fine 1893 Portland Stone construction of a scale which lends itself to the display of full-length portraits of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century county dignitaries. Often gifts or works raised by public subscription, the paintings reflect the warmth in which local worthies were held, at a time when individuals who held office usually came from a relatively small number of families and were gentlemen of means who had the leisure time to represent the people of Surrey. These men (and apart from royalty there are no oil paintings of women in the Collection) often held posts for decades and had huge influence over the development of services in the county, directly affecting people’s lives.