Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue (Pte. J. Haughton. 11th. Hussars.) contemporarily engraved naming, plugged and fitted with a Crimea-style suspension, pawn-broker’s mark to reverse exergue field, good very fine £200-£240

John Haughton was born in Waterford, Ireland, in 1810 and attested for the 11th Light Dragoons at Leeds, Yorkshire, on 31 May 1830. He served with the Regiment in India, where he was three times tried and imprisoned by Regimental Court Martial (and was on a further occasion tried and imprisoned by the Civil Power), and in the Crimea, where he served with the 11th Hussars (as the 11th Light Dragoons had become) as part of the Light Brigade. He was discharged at Chatham on 17 July 1855, as unfit for further service ‘due to failing strength and chronic pains. He has a slight lance wound on his left shoulder.’ His conduct and character on discharge was noted as ‘bad.’

Although not shown in the casualty lists in the London Gazette, the fact that he had a lance wound to his shoulder raises the possibility that he rode, and was wounded, in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava on 25 October 1854. Although he is not recorded as a confirmed ‘Charger’, most members of the Light Brigade entitled to the Balaklava clasp, in the absence of any evidence or status details to the contrary, took part in the Charge, and their absence from one of more reconstructions does not preclude them from having taken part in the Charge of the Light Brigade. Furthermore, although he does not appear on the list of members of the ‘Balaklava Society’, the fact that he was born in 1810 means that he could well have died before the formation of the Balaklava Society in 1877.

Note: A four clasp Crimea Medal, engraved to ‘Pte. J. Haughton, 11th Hussars’ was sold at Glendining’s in November 1911, and again at Sotheby’s in March 1984.

Sold with copied service papers and other research.