John Sweetman, 'Nolan, Lewis Edward (1818-1854)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http:/www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20240, accessed 22 March 2013]
Nolan, Lewis Edward [Louis, Ludwig] (1818-1854), army officer and writer on cavalry, was born on 4 January 1818 in York county, Upper Canada, the second son of John Babington Nolan (1786?-1850), captain 70th foot, and his second wife, Elizabeth (1779-1870), daughter of George Harland Hartley and already twice widowed.
Lewis had two stepbrothers and two brothers, all of whom held commissions in either the Austrian or British armies. His grandfather, Babington Nolan, died in 1796 on the West Indian island of St Domingo, serving with the 13th light dragoons.
Shortly after Nolan's birth, the family moved to Scotland and subsequently to Italy, where on half pay his father became British vice-consul in Milan, then Austrian-ruled.
Educated at the military college in Milan, on 15 March 1832 Nolan joined the 10th Imperial and Royal Hussars, a Hungarian unit of the Austrian army. Tutored by the famous riding instructor Colonel Haas and later serving with his regiment in Austria's Hungarian and Polish provinces, Nolan's 'great zeal and application' and his skills as a daring horseman and expert swordsman were officially praised.
Visiting England in 1838, Lieutenant Nolan attended a royal levée and saw Queen Victoria crowned. Pleading ill health the following year, Nolan returned to his family in Scotland.
While nominally in the Austrian army until October, on 15 March 1839 Nolan's name appeared as a cornet through purchase in the 15th (the King's) light dragoons, and he sailed with the regiment to Madras. Nolan's first spell in India was short: on 26 March 1840 he obtained two years' sick leave.
On 19 June 1841 Nolan purchased advancement to lieutenant, and on 8 March 1842 was posted to the cavalry depot at Maidstone for a riding master's course. There an instructor noted his 'thoroughly amiable temper, kindness of disposition and really fascinating manner ... [he] lived only to be a soldier' (Henderson, 193-4).
Nolan went back to India in May 1843 and was appointed riding master of the 15th light dragoons in August 1844. The following year Major-General Clement Hill commented on his 'active and zealous' work.
Socially, Nolan was making his name as an accomplished rider at military race meetings and attending levées, balls, and reviews. In January 1849 he became aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Sir George Berkeley, commander-in-chief Madras, and later extra aide-de-camp to the governor, Sir Henry Pottinger.
On 8 March 1850, two months after his father's death, Nolan purchased his captaincy, and in January 1851 yet once more secured two years' sick leave. After a short stay in England, in summer 1852 Nolan observed cavalry manoeuvres in Russia, Sweden, and Prussia, before taking command of the 15th light dragoons' depot troop at Maidstone. He led the regiment's detachment at Wellington's funeral.
A slim, dark-haired figure with trim moustache, known as Louis to his family and Ludwig in the Austrian army, Nolan spoke five European languages and several Indian dialects. There is no evidence that his three lengthy spells of sick leave were due to ill health.
Acting as a model for its illustrations, he published The Training of Cavalry Remount Horses: a New System (1852) and Cavalry: its History and Tactics (1853). He advocated a major role for arme blanche cavalry in war, and claimed they could successfully charge artillery. Nolan also designed a cavalry saddle which 'much pleased' the duke of Cambridge (Maidstone Journal, 3 May 1853).
In March 1854 Britain declared war on Russia, and Nolan went to Turkey in advance of Lord Raglan's expeditionary force to buy cavalry horses, but was let down by local contractors. Nevertheless, Raglan recorded Nolan's 'zeal and intelligence' and sent him on another purchasing mission to Syria.
On his return, Nolan actively assumed the duties of aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Richard Airey, commanding the 1st brigade of the light division, and went with Airey when he became quartermaster-general at Raglan's headquarters.
Having landed with the combined British, French, and Turkish force on the Crimean peninsula, 'the brave and daring Captain Nolan' (Powell, 14) came under fire at the first skirmish on the Bulganek River and carried executive orders during the battle of the Alma on 20 September 1854. Angry that the cavalry had not pursued the retreating enemy, Nolan then rode with the allies to besiege Sevastopol from uplands to the south.
On 25 October 1854 Nolan carried the fateful order to Lord Lucan (commanding the cavalry division) before the celebrated charge of the light brigade. Overlooking the plain of Balaklava from the heights, Raglan saw Russian troops preparing to withdraw British guns captured earlier that day from redoubts on a low ridge, which divided the plain into two valleys.
Before he descended with the message, ordering Lucan 'to prevent the enemy taking away the guns', Nolan received 'careful instructions' from Airey and Raglan (Calthorpe, 1.314). However, situated between his two cavalry brigades, Lucan could see no guns owing to the lie of the land. Later, he claimed that on asking which guns he was to 'attack' Nolan pointed towards the end of the north valley where massed Russian cavalry were protected by artillery drawn up in front of them and on flanking high ground.
Having delivered the order, Nolan joined the 17th lancers and rode with them behind Lord Cardigan, the brigade commander. Before the advance had progressed far, Nolan galloped beyond Cardigan, shouting and waving his sword as he looked back towards the moving brigade.
In the confusion of battle, his intentions were unclear, and almost immediately he was killed by a shell bursting to Cardigan's right. Raglan reproached Lucan for the subsequent débâcle, and he in turn blamed Nolan. Whether Nolan sought to speed up the advance, divert it towards the captured redoubts, or stop the attack altogether remains moot. So must the precise nature of his last conversation with Lucan.
A memorial erected in Holy Trinity Church, Maidstone, recorded that he 'fell at the head of the light cavalry brigade in the charge at Balaklava'. Unmarried, and survived by his mother, Nolan bequeathed his possessions to Colonel George William Key and the copyright of his first book to Captain Lennox Berkeley.
John Sweetman
Sources
Army List
A. W. Kinglake, The invasion of the Crimea, 8 vols. (1863-87)
H. Moyse-Bartlett, Louis Edward Nolan and his influence on the British cavalry (1971)
R. Henderson, The soldier of three queens (1866)
H. Powell, Recollections of a young soldier during the Crimean War (1876)
S. J. G. Calthorpe, Letters from headquarters, or, The realities of the war in the Crimea, 2nd edn, 2 vols. (1857)
G. Paget, The light brigade in the Crimea (1881)
C. Hibbert, The destruction of Lord Raglan [1961]
C. Woodham-Smith, The reason why (1957)
J. Sweetman, Raglan: from the Peninsula to the Crimea (1993)
Boase, Mod. Eng. biog.
Archives
NAM, department of archives, journal, 8906/41
Likenesses
Memorial tablet, Holy Trinity Church, Maidstone>
Portrait, repro. in ILN (24 Nov 1854)
© Oxford University Press 2004-13
John Sweetman, 'Nolan, Lewis Edward (1818-1854)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http:/www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/20240, accessed 22 March 2013]
Lewis Edward Nolan (1818-1854): doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/20240