P.G. Fitzgerald served in India from 1847 to 1878 as an Assistant Surgeon with the Madras Artillery, 20th, 47th and 27th N.I. Regiments and 1st Madras Fusiliers, to 1863, and then as Surgeon to the 105th Regiment from 1863-1865. He was commissioned Surgeon Major in 1866 and Deputy Surgeon General in 1875. Apart from his medical duties he was also a keen photographer and these images were taken during his active service in Bengal in the late 1850s.

The negatives have annotations on the back which relate to an order for prints to be made in different processes.