Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Crimean War medals to Captain H. W. Cust, A.D.C. to Major-General Bentinck, Coldstream Guards, killed in action at the battle of the Alma

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Alma (Capt. H. W. Cust, Coldstream Gds.) contemporary engraved naming in the style of Hunt & Roskell; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue (Capt. H. W. Cust, Coldstream Gds.) named as before, good very fine (2) £800-1000

In a letter from an unidentified officer of the Coldstream Guards dated ‘Bivouc, River Alma, 21 September 1854’ the following detail concerning Captain Cust is given:

“The loss of the Brigade of Guards is very severe, but the proportion of deaths to wounded is extraordinarily small. On calling the roll after the action, 312 rank and file and fifteen officers were discovered killed and wounded. Besides there was my poor friend Horace Cust, who was struck by a round-shot in crossing the river. He was aide-de-camp to General Bentinck, and we were watering our horses at the time when the shot struck his horse in the shoulder and smashed poor Cust's thigh. He died soon after the leg was amputated.”

In the book The Coldstream Guards in the East, by John Wyatt, published in 1858, the following description is given of Cust's injury:

“Captain Cust ADC... lost a great deal of blood on the field, from the femoral artery which had been ruptured by a round shot. The injury was complicated with comminuted fracture extending into the knee-joint, and rendered amputation of the limb necessary. A ligature had been placed on the protruded artery by a medical officer of another Regiment, who found him lying on the field. But he sank shortly after amputation was performed, although a considerable time was allowed to elapse after the receipt of the injury, to enable the constitution to recover from the primary shock it had sustained.”

The first account clearly shows Captain Cust was in the river Alma when his horse was hit by a round-shot. His horse must have taken the brunt of the impact and could hardly have been able to carry Cust off the field of battle. The second account states that Cust was found lying on the field; how he left the river and was finally discovered by a Regimental surgeon will probably never be known, but it is possible his friends left him on the river bank in the hands of British soldiers, to await medical assistance.

There is a memorial to this officer in the Royal Military Chapel at Wellington Barracks which is inscribed:

“In memory of Captain Horace William Cust, Coldstream Guards. He joined the Regiment on the 7th April 1848, and embarked with the Ist battalion for the Eastern Campaign, February, 1854. He served as aide-de-camp to Major-General Bentinck, commanding the Brigade of Guards at the battle of Alma, 20th September 1854, where he was mortally wounded by a cannon shot. His grave is on the bank of the Alma. Placed by his brother, Lieut-Col. J. Francis Cust, late Grenadier Guards.” Sold with full research.