ALL THAT IS LEFT OF THEM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15962, 3 January 1914, Page 12

ALL THAT IS LEFT OF THEM.

BALACLAVA SURVIVORS. Fifty-nine years after the event it is little "surprising that survivors .of the " Charge of the Light Brigade" should be few in number. At the time of writing but 12 remain—one officer and 11 troopers. All of them are octogenarians, and mostly in poor health. Subjoined is a list of the veterans, with a- short account of the part each played in the battle. Henry Wilsden, 4th Hussars, is 89 years of age." and resides at Oxford. Though he rode right up to the Russian guns, he escaped unhurt. John Boxall, 4th Hussars, is 82, and resides at Tunbridge Wells. rSoxall had a thrilling exoenence, and a wonderful escape from death. Disabled by a broken leg, he was ridden over by a squadron of Polish Lancers and stabbed. Showing signs of vitality when at length, the enemy came to clear the field, the trooper was taken prisoner and carried to Odessa, where he remained for months in hospital. After the war he was invalided tmt of the army, his wounds having left him a permanent cripple. James Olley, 81 years of age, also belonged to the 4th Hussars. In the melee he received three wounds, one of which ?hot out his left eye, and another, a %word cut, clove right through the bone of nis forehead. Notwithstanding, Mr Olley enjoys wonderfully good health, and for several years has regularly attended the annual Balaclava dinner.

John Whitehead, 4th Hussars, 81 years of age. is another well-preserved veteran. Early in the ride Whitehead's horse was shot'dead, and, unable to procure a >-emount, the trooper took little further part in the action.

William Fulton, 80. years of age, is the sole survivor of the Bth Hussars, and was recently resident in Edinburgh. Fulton received a bad wound in the wrist.

William Pennington, one of the three survivors of the 11th Hussars', was for a considerable time cut off from his comrades, but managed to regain the lines after hacking his way through a cltmd of Lancers.

John Parkinson. 11th Hussars, and 81 years of age, came through the light almost without a scratch.

George Gibson, 13th Light Dragoons, is 81 years of age. He, too, escaped unhurt, (hough stunned by a fall from his horse.

J. Kilvert. 11th Hussars, is 80 years of ago. and a well-known resident, of Wednesbury. Kilvert, who was a corporal at the time of.the action, was badly wounded in the leg. Edwin Hughes, 13th Light Dragoons, i' the same age as his comrade Gibson, and, also like him, came through the carnage unscathed.

Jame,< Mustard, 84 years of age is the sole survivor of the 17th Hussars, badly wounded in the side, in the excitement of the moment ho was not aware of t!,e hurt, and only discovered it when returning to the lines.

A remarkable fact, showing the terrible fire to which the Brigade was exposed, is that of the above-mentioned troopers, only three returned to the lines mounted on their own horses. Indeed, out t>f 110 men in the 11th Hussars, only 25 mounted troopers returned, while of the 145 in the 17th Lancers who went into action, only 38 answered to their names at the subsequent roll-call.

It is a curious reflection that the last survivor 'of the Lancers should have escaped without a weapon to defend himself, for his fiwvd was carried away by a shot in the middle of the fighting.