Perhaps the most well-known moment of the Crimean War of 1853-56 was the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade, when British cavalry were erroneously sent into the face of heavy Russian artillery fire. Newcastle has (at least) two important links with the incident, which took place on 25th October 1854 during the Battle of Balaklava.
Firstly, it was Newcastle-born Brigadier-General Richard Airey (above) who, following the instructions of his superior, actually issued the fateful order for the infamous ‘charge’. This would have been a written order, drafted by Airey and handed down the chain of command. A catastrophic misinterpretation of the order led to the failed action.
Furthermore, the trumpeter who sounded the charge was one Billy Brittain, an Irishman who lived in Newcastle. Brittain died of his wounds in the battle, but his battered trumpet found its way back to his family on Tyneside, where it ended up (via auction, we think) on display in The Percy Arms pub for several decades. In the 1960s, it was auctioned off again to actor Laurence Harvey, who soon afterwards donated it to the Royal Lancers and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum (where it remains to this day).
[article taken from Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Fragments of the Past, vol.2 (see left-hand column)]
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