BBC - A History of the World - Object : 'Charge of the Light Brigade' Survivor

Commemorative photograph of Trooper William Pearson, survivor of 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and the Crimean War

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Tennyson honoured the men who fought in this battle in his best-known poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'This life-sized portrait photograph by E Fowler Richards is of William Pearson of Penrith (1826-1909). Pearson was a survivor of the Crimean War and took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854. The photograph was commissioned in 1894 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 'Charge' and to honour Pearson who was then aged 68. It is framed with a smaller vignette of Pearson in uniform after discharge in 1855. During the 'Charge' Pearson had a hair's-breath escape from death and later suffered severe frostbite. He was nursed by Florence Nightingale at the hospital in Scutari where she pioneered modern nursing practices while caring for the wounded. Pearson served through the whole of the Crimean War and received a medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkermann and Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal. The medals, photograph and other memorabilia are all on display in Penrith Museum.

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1. At 20:49 on 14 October 2010, bhoynick wrote:
An ancestor of mine, some items in museum donated by my grandmother Kathleen Machin, he was buried with military honours in Kendal
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