Maclure

The Battle of Balaclava, 25th October 1854
Drawn by Lieutenant Colonel Adye, Assistant Adjunct-General, Royal Artillery. Assisted by Captain Tupper, Royal Horse Artillery

21.5 x 9 inches

This panoramic print depicts one of the most famous and ill-fated military campaigns in British history, The Charge of the Light Brigade. The Battle of Balaclava was one of the conflicts that took place during the Crimean War. It was one of the confrontations that were to become known as The Siege of Sevastopol where the British forces under Lord Raglan, collaborated with the French against the Russian army. Raglan positioned the British troops at Balaclava in October 1854 and found himself outnumbered by the Russian forces. At first the 93rd Highland Regiment were able to hold the defensive line (a situation that was to go down in history as "The Thin Red Line") but this initial success was followed by a misguided initiative that resulted in The Charge of the Light Brigade; an heroic yet disastrous manoeuvre immortalised in the poignant lines of Lord Alfred Tennyson:

Forward the Light Brigade!
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldiers knew
Someone had blundered.
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.