Charge of the Light Brigade, Balaklava, 1854

[Jim McDougall]

On October 25,1854, at Balaklava, the British Light Brigade cavalry with five regiments led by the 17th Lancers charged down a valley into Russian guns and immortality, thanks to the poem by Tennyson.
Always fascinated by British cavalry in my youngest years of collecting, I sought to put together an assembly of swords as used by these units that day.

While the swords only serve as 'of the type', they present a view of what the swords carried in 'the charge' looked like, and are not claimed to have been actual examples of that event.
Attached:
The painting of the 'charge' with 17th Lancers leading; the cap badge of skull and crossbones; the leather sabretache (pouch to carry orders) is believed or the period with the simple skull and crossbones.

The photo of landscape is the Balaklava valley as seen today, now a vineyard.

The M1821 light cavalry saber with three bar hilt as carried by the troopers of all four regiments 17th Lancers, 11th Hussars, 8th Hussars, 4th and 13th Light Dragoons.

These were being superceded by the new M1853 saber for both light and heavy cavalry, as seen in the example which is by Kirschbaum, Solingen who produced many of the first examples. It is now known that many of these Solingen examples by this maker were among the swords carried by both light and heavy brigades at Balaklava.