A Trump Card(igan}. John Leech. Wood engraving from Punch (1854) [Click on image to enlarge it.]
According to Marjorie Bloy's biography of Cardigan in her Victorian Web section on the Crimean War, when serving in India before his father died and he became the seventh Earl of Cardigan with an income of £40,000 a year, “his temper . . . caused perpetual quarrels. . . . but he spent £10,000 a year on the regiment so the 11th Hussars soon became the smartest cavalry regiment in the army. . . . In 1854 the Crimean War broke out; the 57 year old Cardigan was sent out in command of a cavalry brigade in Major-General Lord Lucan's division. Lord Lucan and Cardigan were old enemies and brothers-in-law. Cardigan asserted that his command was independent of Lucan's control but their hostility manifested itself both at Varna and the day before the battle of the Alma. When the cavalry camped outside Balaclava, Lord Lucan lived alongside the men while Cardigan dined and slept aboard his luxurious yacht in the harbour. Cardigan led the Light Cavalry into the "Valley of Death" in the charge of the Light Brigade; he was the first in and the first out of the attack on the Russian guns and was unscathed.”
Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham. Formatting by George P. Landow. Image courtesy of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and the University of British Columbia and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Last modified 13 May 2014