Discover History’s Paul Harding on a man who rode into the Valley of Death and lived to tell the tale

ON a cold November morning in 1873, Troop Sergeant Major Edwin Hughes, No.1506, was discharged from the Army in Colchester. He was taking with him a marble clock from members of his mess and a long service medal to wear next to his Crimean medals.

His mind was full of memories, after 21 years and 24 days’ service to Queen and country.

As a career soldier from Wrexham in Wales, the 43-year-old re-enlisted the very next day into the Worcestershire Yeomanry and found himself living just outside Stourport.

He was a very experienced man who had served in the 13th Light Dragoons and who in 1854 had charged at the famous Battle of Balaclava with the Light Brigade, the battle immortalised in the words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem which includes the famous line, “Into the Valley of Death rode the six hundred”.

Edwin Hughes recounted his experiences in the Battle, which led to him gaining the nickname, Balaclava Ned.

He described his role in the charge: “We rode out at the command, straight for the Russian lines.

“Before we reached them my horse was shot, and in falling on its side, I got partially pinned underneath injuring my leg.”

Later in life, he added: “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.”

He went on to fight at the Battle of Inkerman and in the long Siege at Sebastopol. He quickly moved from corporal to sergeant and then to troop sergeant major. It was as this rank he was discharged, described at the time as being 5ft 9in tall, with a fresh complexion, sandy hair and hazel eyes.

Sergeant Major Hughes was made Sergeant Instructor in the Worcestershire Yeomanry, having been a veteran of campaigns abroad and experienced in fast paced cavalry warfare.

He would have overseen the training of new recruits and put the Regiment through rigorous manoeuvres and exercises on Kempsey Ham and Pitchcroft Meadow.

At this time the Worcestershire Yeomanry, or to give it the official title – the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars – trained regularly and was always ready to be used to assist in putting down civil unrest.

This was something they were called on to do numerous times, during workers’ strikes, Chartists’ meetings and political gatherings.

On January 5 1886, Edwin was discharged from the Yeomanry due to ‘old age’. He stayed in the area until he eventually moved to Blackpool, where he died in 1927 aged 96.

His life and long service history is marked in Wrexham and Blackpool, and he is still known as the ‘Last Man Standing – the last man to die who took part in the famous Charge of the Light Brigade.

His three medals were purchased by his family in 2005 for £16,000 after they appeared at an auction.

In Worcestershire and in particular Worcester his is a name rarely mentioned. He would have known Pitchcroft Meadow even better than the Valley of Death he charged down in 1854!

He is worthy of a plaque in what is now Worcester Racecourse.