Charge of Light Brigade soldier’s letters and medals donated

[Mael Coluim]

An interesting article in our local newspaper appeared this week that may be of interest to some of you. A local resident has donated to the regimental museum in Yorkshire, England the letters and medals of his ancestor Percy Shawe Smith who rode with the Light Brigade at The Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War and lived to tell the story. Click here.
EDIT: Looks like the newspaper has now removed the link. Sorry.

In summary; Resident Tony Kent's great-grandfather Percy Shawe Smith was a 25 year old lieutenant with the 13th Light Dragoons one of the five regiments of the Light Brigrade. Due to prior injury he could not yield a sabre and could only lead his men in the charge. He made it through the harring fire to confront the Cossock lancers. Escaping the lances of three Cossocks he was rescued by the 11th Hussars cavalerymen. Two thirds of his regiment were killed. He was the only officer who survived on his orginal horse. He was promoted to captain after the battle. He left the army two years after the Crimean War in 1858. He was the longest surviving officer of the charge when he died in 1917. The gift was the letter he wrote his father descriping the charge and the four medals awarded to him by Queen Victoria.


EDIT: From the Daily Mail click here.

And here is a link about Lt. Smith in the book Forgotton Heros of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

The Charge of the Light Brigade
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

1.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

2.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

3.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

4.
Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

5.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

6.
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

Copied from Poems of Alfred Tennyson,
J. E. Tilton and Company, Boston, 1870

Oil painting by popular Victorian battle scene artist Richard Caton Woodville, "Rlief of the Light Brigade" in 1897.