LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The E.J. Boys Archive

On Wednesday 2 July 1890 a “grand fête” was held at Olympia, Kensington, in aid of the Light Brigade Relief Fund. The Fund had been set up after public concern about survivors of the Charge living in poverty, some of them in the workhouse. About eighty Crimean veterans marched into the hall. According to the Daily News, thirty-eight of them were survivors of the Charge itself.

This page brings together a group photograph of survivors, with the list of 36 names printed beneath it, and the Daily News report of the fête.

The group photograph

The page is from a periodical of the time, whose title and date are not shown in the scan. Its heading is “The Balaklava Charge. (See next page.)”, and the photograph is credited “From Photo.: Boning & Small”.

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List of names in group

Transcribed exactly as printed, with the printer’s own guide to the numbering: “The Nos. run from left to right—bottom row first, top row next, and then middle row.” Regiments are added where they are confirmed by the 1904 Jubilee postcard or by the man’s own page.

No.	Name as printed	Notes
1	J. Brewington.
2	M. Carrol.
3	Tom King.
4	J. Herbert.
5	A. Wilder.
6	Hunt.
7	J. Brooks.
8	Josiah Campbell.
9	P. H. Marsh.	17th Lancers (1904 postcard)
10	J. W. Wightman.
11	B. Soley.	17th Lancers — see his own page
12	J. Nunnerley.
13	Major Berryman, V.C.
14	Serg.-Major Barker.
15	W. Burns.
16	W. H. Spring.	11th Hussars (1904 postcard)
17	John Ford.	4th Light Dragoons (1904 postcard)
18	Serg.-Major Dawn.
19	J. Buckton.
20	C. W. Short.
21	N. W. Eastoe.	11th Hussars (1904 postcard)
22	W. Cullen.	11th Hussars (1904 postcard)
23	H. Shergold.
24	W. Perkins (Trmptr.)
25	J. Hodges.
26	B. Beeson.	11th Hussars (1904 postcard)
27	C. Aldous.
28	J. Mustard.	17th Lancers (1904 postcard)
29	W. Tiggel.
30	T. Clarke.
31	J. Brennan.
32	G. Cooper.
33	H. G. Wickham.
34	R. Young.
35	J. Pamplin.
36	T. Mullins.

An earlier, experimental version of the photograph, where hovering over a man shows his name, is still available here.

“Balaclava Heroes at Olympia” — Daily News, Thursday 3 July 1890

BALACLAVA HEROES AT OLYMPIA.

As an outcome of the widespread feeling of sympathy which has been excited on behalf of the neglected survivors of our army in the Crimea a grand fête was given yesterday at Olympia in aid of the Light Brigade Relief Fund. Such an event naturally attracted a large concourse of spectators, and the lessees of the Olympian Roller Skating Club provided a lengthy and excellent programme. The fête was under the patronage of the Light Brigade Relief Committee, of which Lord Hartington is president, and which includes amongst its members Viscount Wolseley, Sir Evelyn Wood, Sir Redvers Buller, Sir G. W. Higginson, the Duke of Abercorn, Lord Tennyson, the Earl of Airlie, Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Frederick Leighton, and others.

In the entrance hall was a huge stand of palms and exotic plants, amidst which were trophies of arms, cannons, and Crimean relics, while the inside of the hall was gay with lines of brightly coloured Japanese balloons, fans, and lanterns, which made a very effective show against the hangings of drapery and flags which extended along the spacious galleries and depended from the arched groins of the roof. A private box on the ground tier was surmounted by an arched canopy.

Soon after two o’clock a band of about eighty veterans marched in, headed by the band of the Hon. Artillery Company playing “The British Grenadiers.” In this little column thirty-eight were survivors of the famous charge. These were made up as follows: six of the 4th Light Dragoons, 14 of the 17th Lancers, and one of the 8th Hussars; six of the 13th Light Dragoons, and 11 of the 11th Hussars. The remainder were all Crimean men, but it was truly a pitiful sight to see three or four men in the procession wearing workhouse uniform, but marching, nevertheless, as lively as their old and more fortunate …

The cutting breaks off here, in mid-sentence. The paragraph breaks have been added; the original runs on as a single paragraph.