Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

Sold by Order of the Direct Descendants of Troop Sergeant-Major Edwin Hughes

The highly emotive Charge of the Light Brigade group of three awarded to Troop Sergeant-Major Edwin Hughes, 13th Light Dragoons, the last survivor of the gallant six hundred, who died at Blackpool, aged 96 years, in 1927: having had his horse shot from under him on that fateful day in October 1854, he busied himself guarding Russian prisoners - “I was glad I was in it, and I am glad that I am here to tell the tale”

Crimea 1854-56, 4 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol ([Co]rpl. E. Hughes, 13th Lt. Dra[goo]ns), contemporary engraved naming with occasional loss of detail due to edge bruising; Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., small letter reverse (1506 Tp. Sergt. Major Edwin Hughes, 13th Hussars), officially impressed naming; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed, each worn from an M. Phillips, Aldershot silver riband buckle, the first with refixed suspension claw and, like the last, with contact wear, edge bruising and polished, thus fine or better, the L.S. & G.C. about very fine (3) £10000-15000

Edwin Hughes was born at Mount Street, Wrexham in December 1830, the son of William and Mary Hughes, and one of eight surviving children. A shoemaker prior to his enlistment in the 13th Light Dragoons in October 1852, he was embarked for the Crimea at Portsmouth in May 1854.

Subsequently present at the battle of Alma, he next saw action with the Light Brigade in the famous charge at Balaklava on 25 October 1854, when his horse was killed. According to press interviews he gave in later life, his position in the ranks of the 13th Light Dragoons was “fifth file front rank, right first of line” but he was not to remain mounted for long, his horse being shot from under him as the regiment came within range of the Russian guns, and trapping his left leg “for a considerable time ... I was damaged about the face and left leg but not seriously.” Helped on to another horse, he was placed in charge of some Russian prisoners for the remainder of the day. “We just did our duty without any thought of glory, and, of course, as in all wars many of our lot paid the supreme price. I was glad I was in it, and I’m glad that I am here to tell the tale,” he later told a reporter from the Blackpool Times.

Next in action at the battle of Inkermann that November, Hughes also served in the operations before Sebastopol, in addition to enduring two bitterly cold winters, when, as he would later recall, “the food was not ever good or plentiful.” We know, too, from a letter that he sent to one of his sisters (dated at Balaklava, 30 July 1855), that he survived at least one bout of sickness, while official records confirm that he was at Scutari on at least two occasions. The same letter reveals that he was a keen observer of events around him:

‘ ... If you were here in Balaklava you would make your fortune very soon, for according to the size of the place there is as much business done in it as there is in London, for from morning till night the place is a continual fair - we call it Donnybrook Fair. There are English, French, Sardinians, Turks, Greeks, Maltese, Jews and Tartars ... French women mounted on horses, just the same as the men, with boots and spurs and blue trousers, jacket and gypsy hats, riding through the market with turbot fish in one hand and reins in the other, and perhaps a little further on you will see our English women mounted but they don’t ride with straddled legs as the French women do ... ’

Hughes, who saw no further active service, was advanced to Corporal in 1858, to Sergeant in 1863 and to Troop Sergeant-Major in 1871, and on the occasion of his discharge at Colchester in November 1873, was described as ‘being 5 feet 9 inches in height, of fresh complexion, with hazel eyes, sandy hair and bearing no scars on his face or any other part of his body’, and in possession of the Medal for Long Service and Good Conduct. His departure from the regiment after 21 years of loyal and gallant service was marked by the presentation of a marble clock by his fellow N.C.Os, and he was immediately re-employed as a Sergeant Instructor in the Worcestershire Yeomanry Cavalry, in which capacity he served until January 1886.

He had, meanwhile, in 1879, been elected a member of the Balaklava Commemoration Society, and attended the annual dinners held in 1895, 1910, 1912 and 1913, by which latter date there were less than 15 survivors of the famous charge. It was about this time that Hughes moved from Birmingham to Blackpool to live with his daughter Mary, where ‘he enjoyed good health though he became rather deaf towards the end of his life. He was an erect, soldierly figure with an unquavering voice and treasured his commemorative [marble] clock and an engraving of Lord Cardigan on his favourite charger - the engraving was given by the Countess of Cardigan to each of the survivors of the Charge on 28 October 1878’ (accompanying family notes refer).

Nor did Hughes forget his Wrexham roots, returning to that place every year, ‘touring the pubs and giving reminiscences of the Crimea for a few coppers or a pint’; in October 1992, a special plaque was placed in Mount Street to commemorate one of Wrexham’s famous sons.

In later years the recipient of financial assistance from the T. H. Roberts Fund - which had been set up to help survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade who had fallen on hard times - Hughes also received a pension from the Royal Patriotic Fund in 1918. But by 1923 he was the only survivor left, and with both of these sources of income exhausted by 1925, he was awarded a special grant from the War Office.
Edwin Hughes, the last survivor of the gallant six hundred, died at 64 Egerton Road, Blackpool on 18 May 1927, aged 96 years, and was buried with full military honours at Layton Cemetery, five days later - in April 1992 his grave was restored and re-dedicated by his old regiment.

Sold with an original portrait photograph of the recipient in uniform, wearing the above described Honours and Awards (see illustration); a larger format illustration of survivors of the Charge taken at Birmingham in October 1895, with Hughes standing to the fore, sword in hand; a page from a magazine feature of “All That Was Left of Them”, dated 26 October 1912, with Hughes depicted among the 14 veterans then surviving; and some recently compiled family notes, from which some of the above quoted details have been taken.