Page 114 - Light Dragoons 2023 CREST

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
The Story of Edwin Hughes, 13th Light Dragoons
Edwin Hughes was born in Wrexham, Wales on 12 December 1830, and baptised at St Giles’ Church, Wrexham on 5 January 1831. Edwin became a shoemaker until enlisting with the 13th Light Dragoons on 1 November 1852 in Liverpool, and shortly afterwards he joined his regiment at Hounslow as 1506 Private Hughes. In 1854 he sailed with the regiment from Portsmouth to the Crimea.
On 25 October 1854 Hughes rode in the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava, where his horse was killed under him, trapping his leg. Of the charge, he later said:
‘I rode fifth file from front, right of first line. On coming within range of the guns, the horse I rode was hit and fell with me underneath, and for a considerable time I was unable to move as my left leg was fast. During this time the second and third line passed over me but I escaped being trod- den on. I was free at last and made the best of my way back. I was damaged about the face and left leg but not seriously.’
“We just did our duty without any thought of glory, and, of course, as in all wars many of our lot paid the supreme price.” Approximately 670 Officers and soldiers
Historical ‘Balaclava Ned’
rode in the charge, 110 were killed and 161 wounded.
Returning to British lines after the charge, Hughes was put in charge of the Russian prisoners. Later he was also present at the Battle of Inkerman on 5 November 1854 and throughout the siege and eventual cap- ture of Sevastopol on 11 September, 1855. In a letter to his sister, dated July 30th 1855 he wrote the following:
‘The weather is most infernally hot here, it is dreadful there is a great deal of sickness, there is some talk of us going to move, there is an army of sixty thousand on their way to the Crimea from the interior of Persia but what matter, more the merrier, we shall only have a little more work to do, but I am speaking very light of it considering the sort of work it is but such is life. Sebastopol is not taken yet, we may hope for a charge of some sort when that is taken. I was up there yesterday, there is nothing going on, scarcely any firing there. The two armies stand looking at one another neither of them afraid but one as good as the other.’
At the end of the war he was awarded the Crimea Medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sevastopol, and the Turkish Crimea Medal.
Hughes remained with the 13th and in 1858 he was promoted to corporal, then to
Edwin Hughes 1926
sergeant in 1863, and in 1871 to troop ser- geant major. On 24 November 1873 he was discharged from the army at Colchester Garrison at his own request, having com- pleted 21 years and 24 days service. The report on his character stated ‘his conduct has been very good and would, had he not been promoted, have now been in posses- sion of five good conduct badges. He is also in possession of the silver medal for long service and good conduct.” On leav- ing the regiment he was presented with a marble clock by the non-commissioned officers of the 13th Hussars, an item that he treasured all his life.
The day after leaving the army Hughes enlisted in the Worcestershire Yeomanry Cavalry, staying as sergeant-instructor until 5 January 1886 when he was dis- charged on account of having reached retirement age.
Hughes married a woman called Hannah, who died in 1899; they had two sons and two daughters, one of whom never mar- ried, and in 1910 he went to live with her in Blackpool. Hughes was a member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society, and attended the reunions for survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1895, 1910, 1912 and 1913. He received a pen- sion from the T. H. Roberts Fund, which had been set up for the soldiers in the Charge who had fallen on hard times, and was also granted a pension from the Royal Patriotic Fund. With the death of William Henry Pennington of the 11th Hussars in May 1923, Hughes was the last survivor of the Charge, and in 1925 when the various relief funds ran out the War Office made a
Volley of Fire at Edwin’s funeral
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