Ruth Wood (December 2004)
It was 150 years ago that a brave local man rode into the Valley of Death and survived. George Wombwell, from Newburgh Priory, was one of the so-called "Gallant Six Hundred" who rode in the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade.
Though glorified by Hollywood hero Errol Flynn and poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, the charge was the biggest Allied mistake of the Crimean War. Only through a series of tragic misunderstandings were 673 British horsemen sent galloping down the wrong valley straight into the mouth of enemy Russian guns. In the ensuing slaughter, the brigade lost more than 100 men and nearly 400 horses, while 127 men were wounded. But the humiliation of this military blunder in a Ukrainian valley by the Black Sea on the morning of October 25 1854 was soon softened by admiration for the men who took part. In a horrendous war that claimed more than a million lives, mostly through sickness and disease, the Charge of the Light Brigade shone out as a symbol of British bravery and fighting spirit.
Leading the light cavalry into the jaws of death that fateful morning were six men, including the brigade commander himself Lord Cardigan. Close behind him was a landowner from Newburgh, Cornet George Wombwell of the 17th Lancers. Wombwell was among the six horsemen who lined up for the Charge in front of the rest of the Light Brigade. This tiny party of men included the leader himself Lord Cardigan, who was only slightly ahead. They set off at a steady walk, then a trot, finally gathering pace. It was agony for the men to go so slowly with enemy fire raining down on them. Wombwell said: "Every man felt that the quicker they rode, the better chance he would have of escaping unhurt. I got up to the guns when unfortunately my horse was shot under me, and came down leaving me dismounted. My first act was to get another horse, and seeing a trooper minus a rider I made for him and caught him and jumped on his back and went down again with the second line." His second horse was surrounded by Russians. Rank mattered even in such circumstances. Officers were more likely to be taken prisoner, private soldiers to be killed. "I heard a fearful yell and about five or seven Cossacks came up flourishing their swords. 1 expected to be cut down, and desiring to throw down my sword, which seeing such resistance was useless I did, when I was instantly surrounded, my pistols seized, and was rather roughly helped off my beaten horse. A Russian officer came up and asked me if I spoke French. I told him yes and requested him not to let the savages by whom I was surrounded knock me about. He was uncommonly civil, told me not to be alarmed, they were only rather rough in their manners, so away I was marched."
Wombwell was rescued by the 11th Hussars. He came home and lived at Newburgh Priory until his death in 1913.
(Ruth Wood is a senior reporter on the Western Daily Press, Bristol)