Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine battle of Inkermann D.C.M. group of four awarded to Colour-Sergeant Charles Walker, 55th Regiment, later a Yeoman of the Guard

Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (Colr-Serjt. C. Walker, 55th Regt.); China 1842 (55th Regiment Foot); Crimea 1854-55, 3 clasps, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol (1500 Color Sergt., 55 Regt.) regimentally impressed naming; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, unnamed, together with contemporary Colour-Sergeant’s stripes, lacquered and sometime possibly silver-plated, contact marks and edge bruising, therefore good fine and better (4) £5000-6000

D.C.M. M.O. 20 August 1856; £10 Annuity. Awarded for gallantry at the battle of Inkermann.

The Regimental Museum of the Border Regiment hold a number of recommendations for the Victoria Cross for officers and men of the 55th in the Crimea. Amongst these is a recommendation for the award of the Victoria Cross to Charles Walker, which reads:

‘Distinguished gallantry at the Battle of Inkermann 5th November 1854, in recapturing one of our Field Guns which was being dragged away by some of the enemy - and which but for the gallant and determined conduct of Sergeant Walker would have been carried off by the Russians.’

The incident was vouched for by Private Thomas Leyland, 55th, and submitted for consideration by Lieutenant-Colonel H. C. B. Daubenay, Commanding 55th.

Walker’s extraordinary gallantry at Inkermann is further described by Kingslake in his Invasion of the Crimea, vol. 6, who records: ‘In the earlier moments of the audacious attack the Colour Serjeant - Charles Walker, a man of great size and strength - had wielded the butt-end of his rifle with prodigious effect, and now, when English and Russian soldiers became so jammed together that none could make use of his weapons, the huge Colour Serjeant was still fiercely driving a rank through part of the closely compressed crowd; doing this more or less by the power of his mighty shoulders and arms, but also by the dint of the blows he rained on right and left with his fists, and those which he maintained with his feet against the enemy’s ankles and shins.’

Charles Walker was born at St Mary’s Gate, Derby, and enlisted at Trowbridge on 20 June 1840, aged 20 years, a skinner by profession. He served for over 21 years, including service in July 1841 at the walled town of Ching-Kiang, in China. In 1844, he was promoted to Corporal but six months later was reduced to the ranks for leaving the barracks without permission. In 1846, the regiment was stationed in Ireland during the time of the potato famine and, in 1849, was posted to Gibraltar, where Walker was again promoted to Corporal. In the Crimea the regiment was part of the 2nd Division, serving under General De Lacy Evans, where it fought at the Alma river, at Inkermann and before Sebastopol, including the attack on the Quarries in June 1855, and the final attack on the Redan. It was at Inkermann, when 30 men of the 55th, led by Major Daubenay, attacked a whole Russian Battalion, that Sergeant Walker distinguished himself and won the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Walker was promoted to Colour-Sergeant in November 1855, and continued in that rank until his discharge on 15 August 1861. He was appointed a Yeoman of the Guard in 1864, and in 1881, aged 59, was employed at the Royal Army Clothing Depot, and living with his wife and family at St George’s, Hanover Square. He died at Clapham on 15 May 1886.