Four: Private James Webster, 17th Lancers, a confirmed Light Brigade ‘charger’ who afterwards served in the Indian Mutiny

Crimea 1854-56, 4 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (J. Webster, 17th Lancers.) officially impressed naming; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (J. Webster, 17th Lancers.); Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (902 Jas Webster. 17th Lancers); Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed, contact marks, nearly very fine or better (4) £8,000-£10,000

Provenance: Acquired by Spink & Son directly from the family in the 1960s; The Armoury 1984; subsequently in the collections of the late George Moss and the late John Laidacker.

Confirmed as a verified charger by all authorities. Webster was a member of the Balaklava Commemoration Society of 1879, and signed the Loyal Address given to Queen Victoria in 1887 by surviving ‘chargers’ on the occasion of her Jubilee.

James Webster was born in Erdington, near Birmingham, Warwickshire, and enlisted there into the 17th Light Dragoons on 25 January 1847, aged 19 years, a forge man by trade. In April 1848 he was flogged and confined to cells for an undisclosed offence. He embarked with his regiment for the Crimea on board the Eveline on 23 April 1854, arriving in the Dardanelles on 18 May. The regiment re-embarked for Varna on 2 June and arrived there 2 days later to form part of Lord Cardigan’s Light Cavalry Brigade. In early September 1854 the regiment embarked for the Crimea, arriving at Kalamita on 17 September. On 25 October 1854, Webster rode with his regiment in the charge of the light brigade at Balaklava. Of the 147 men of the 17th Lancers who rode in the charge, 99 were either killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, Webster being lucky to survive unscathed.

The 17th Lancers returned to England from their service in the Crimea in May 1856, but their stay at home was to be short lived. In October 1857 the regiment sailed for India to meet the need for additional cavalry after the outbreak of mutiny earlier in the year. The regiment reached Bombay in December 1857, and after ‘horsing’, set out for Mhow, a hard five-hundred mile march accomplished without a day’s halt. Once at Mhow, the 17th Lancers joined up with the troops under the command of General Michel in pursuit of the rebel leader Tantia Topee and his army of mutineers. The regiment was in action at Zirapore on 12 December 1858, and at Baroda on 1 January 1859. Only 369 officers and men of the 17th Lancers received the medal for service during the Mutiny, all without clasps, and the regiment was granted the Battle Honour ‘Central India’. Upon his return from India, Webster appears to have joined the Riding School at Sandhurst as an instructor and continued to serve there for the remainder of his Army career. He was recommended for the L.S. & G.C. medal without Gratuity on 13 July 1869, and was discharged, at his own request, free with pension after 24 years service, at Longfor on 12 June 1871. He was 46 years old at the time of his discharge and listed his intended place of residence as Staff College, Sandhurst.

In the 1881 Census he is shown living in Frimley, Surrey, with his wife Elizabeth, his occupation given as ‘groom & vallet’. In the 1891 Census he is shown living at the same address with his wife, but is now shown as being an Army pensioner and is noted as being paralysed. He died at Camberley, Surrey, and is buried in St Michael’s churchyard. A memorial survives but now is very weathered and worn with parts of the inscription illegible but he is clearly described as ‘James Webster, Late 17th Lancers, was present at the charge of the light brigade’.