Balaclava Oct., 1854 Signed with monogram at right. Source: Fun 57-58 (24 October 1893): 170-71. Click on image to enlarge it. The left half of this two-page spread depicts the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade, which forty years later seems to have come to represent heroic courage rather than incredible incompetence of commanding officers, while the right shows an impoverished elderly veteran pawning a medal. The text beneath the charging cavalry officer reads,
Honour the light Brigade!
When shall their glory fade?
and that beneath the old soldier outside a pawn shop:
How have they been repaid? —
Noble Six Hundred!
Related material
- Crimean war
- Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
- The Crimean War: "Britain in Blunderland
- William Simpson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava
- Punch on the Crimean War (30 cartoons)
[You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Hathi Digital Library Trust and the University of Minnesota library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. — George P. Landow]
Last modified 1 February 2016