CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 337, 26 October 1908, Page 6

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE

A SURVIVOR'S RECOLLECTIONS. (HI TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL COItItESI'OftOENT.) Christchurch, October 24. It will be fifty-four years' to-morrow since the Light Brigade made its world-famous charge at tho battle of Balaclava, and Mr. J. Wilson, one of the survivors of that awful day, gave a newspaper reporter recently a graphic'account of the'oharge. Mr. Wilson, who resides in Sydenham, was born in 1830, and served for eight years in the British Armyj belonging to the 10th and -11th Hussars. When the Crimean War broke out his regiment was quartered in India, and it marched from there across the deserts of Arabia to the scene of action. Mr. Wilson has been in New Zealand for forty-nine years. He was in the Crimea from the battle of Balaclava until the fall of Sebastopol, and has a vivid recollection of all that took place during the war, in whioh 400,000 men were killed fighting and 375,000 died 'from starvation * and disease. His horse was shot as the remnants of the brigade were retiring after tho chargo, and Mr. Wilson received a severe blow from a splinter of a shell, which stunned him. He remounted mechanically, however, and when he reached the rear found that 1 was riding a horse from the Uth Hussars with saddle and holsters covered with blood. The horse was killed soon afterwards by grape shot. Of all the glorious regiment, that formed tho. Light Brigade there returned but ono hundred and ninety-eight men. Ono hundred and fifty-seven wero dead and 0110 hundred and nineteen wounded, and three hundred and thirty horses destroyed. More than ono hundred and thirty men wero nover accounted for. Mr. Wilson, who is 78 years of age, holds tho Crimean, Turkish, and Indian medals. Ho 1 says tho charge on October 25, 1854, has lived in his memory with vivid distinctness, overshadowing all tho other battles that his soldiering career led him into.