A CRIMEAN VETERAN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144084, 1 May 1913, Page 4

A CRIMEAN VETERAN.

Godfrey Charles Morgan, Viscount Tredegar, who died recently, charged with the Light Brigade at Balaclava. He often told the story of that famous charge. He himself was within a hundred yards of the guns when he distinctly saw a gunner applying his fuse. That shot hit his right-hand neighbour, and in another ihinute Lieutenant Morgan, as ho then, was, was on the gun,, and the gunner within roach of his sabre. Then his chargor bolted,‘dragging his rider entangled in the stirrup. When Lieutenant Morgan rejoined his men, the 17th, Lancers, he found him-, self in command, his seniors having'all perished in that terrible charge. Of the 145 mo a of the 17tli Lancers who were in the charge, only 32 were numbered off afterwards. Lord Tredegar always declared that ho: heard no bugle sound the charge. Major White shouted, “Charge, there!” and the Lancers advanced. Lord Cardigan cried across, “You have no word to'charge!” But the men .were .on the move. • At the close of the Crimean War Lord “Tredegar left the Army and entered Parliament, and of his abundant wealth he. gave liberally to charities, and was a generous and ’sympathetic landlord. Over £12,000 a year of his income) which averaged £IOOO a day,: was derived from a single mile of railway .(known'as the Golden Mile), which runs'through Tredegar Park, The only condition on which, Lord Tredegar’s consent to the railway, could be obtained was that ho should receive in perpetuity one ton royalty on every ton of coal carried over the line. Lord Tredegar was also a large ground landlord in Bow and Bromley. His: .Welsh property covered huge portions of Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire, and Breconshire, and upon these lands there had been in recent years enormous developments in railways, docks, collieries, and iron and steel and tinplate works. Besides all these properties! the late peer was owner of ovur 1000, farms and the holder of £1,000,00" stock in' the Newport Docks. 1