Thomas Warr, and the
Charge of the Light Brigade
On Wednesday October 25 2006, 152 years to the day after the
disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, in the Crimean
War, Dorchester
remembered one of its sons who took part in the Charge. A special
service took place in St
Peter's Church, attended by members of the Kings Royal Hussars, some
dressed in the uniforms of the time; their predecessors, the 11th
Hussars, having formed a part of the Light Brigade. Thomas Warr was one
of the last
survivors of the ill-fated charge in 1854, in which 616 troopers took
part under the command of the Earl of Cardigan. The Charge was ordered
by the Earl of Lucan, who was in overall command of the Cavalry, in the
face of intense fire by 20 Russian infantry batallions. 118 British
cavalry men were killed, and 127 wounded. 362 horses were lost.
After the battle, Lord Cardigan described the engagement at a speech at the Mansion House, and included these words. "But
what, my Lord, was the feeling and what the bearing of those brave men
who returned to the position. Of each of these regiments there returned
but a small detachment, two-thirds of the men engaged having been
destroyed? I think that every man who was engaged in that disastrous
affair at Balaklava, and who was fortunate enough to come out of it
alive, must feel that it was only by a merciful decree of Almighty
Providence that he escaped from the greatest apparent certainty of
death which could possibly be conceived."
Thomas Warr's history was researched by Peter Metcalfe, a military
historian, who, having visited the Crimea around the time of the 150th
anniversary of the Charge, traced him to Dorchester, and set the events
in motion which led to the service, and to the unveiling of a
plaque by the Mayor of Dorchester, Robin Potter.
Trooper Warr reached the Russian battery, but his horse was very badly
wounded, and he had to drag it back down the valley for one and a half
miles for it to be put out of its misery. Thomas, himself, was discharged
in 1860 and returned here, to the town of his birth, where he died in
poverty in 1916 aged 87. However, his military past was remembered, at
his funeral, by Durnovarians who lined the streets in their
hundreds , and he was accompanied by a military escort from his
own regiment, to his grave at Fordington Cemetery. At the time of his funeral
another significant event loomed; the Battle of the Somme started
ten days later.
Read more about Thomas Warr in the November Parish Magazine. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of this year's commemoration.
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