Page 99 - The KRH Year of 2023 (CREST Sharing)
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The Regimental Journal of The King’s Royal Hussars 99
myownregiment,dashedon.Butworseagain-wewere obliged to wheel “Right about” and to pass through a strong body of their cavalry which had gathered in our rear,andcuttingoffourretreat.
Of course, with our handful, it was life or death, so we rushed at them to break through, but as soon as we got through one body there was another to engage. At any rate, with five or six fellows at my rear I galloped on, passing with the determination of one who would not lose his life, breaking the lances of the cowards who attacked us in the proportion of three or four to one, occasionallycatchingoneaslapwithaswordacrosshis teeth,andgivinganotherthepointonhisarmorbreast.
They still pressed on me till I got sight of our own “Heavies” when, thanks be to God, they stopped pur- suing us, and I got clear, without a scratch from their lances...(Oh,thesabrebeforethelance!)
IfoundthatIcouldnotdismountfromthewoundinmy right leg, and so was lifted off, and then how I caressed thenoblehorsethatbroughtmesafelyout.Iwillnotdis- graceyouasasoldier,father,takemyword.
Pennington always maintained that the Charge had never been sounded at Balaclava, and that only a verbal order was given. He stubbornly referred to it as an ‘advance’ and had several debates in the newspapers with other survivors!
Pennington was in hospital at Scutari from November before returning to the regiment in February 1855. He was again hospitalised from April – May and in June 1855 was Camp Cook at Scutari. He spent the Winter of 1855 on ‘letter duty’
carrying dispatches between Balaclava and the field. After the war’s conclusion with the Treaty of Paris, there was a review of British and French Troops by the Russian leadership, and he vividly recalled escorting the Russian Commander Alexander von Lüders:
‘I had the honour of riding in the escort which accom- panied General Lüders to the Russian lines. This cir- cumstance remains indelibly impressed upon my mind, because of the ruin of my new crimson overalls which were lathered with the foam from the sides of my chest- nut mare, so fast was the pace the Russian General enforceduponhisEnglishescort.’
Soon afterwards Pennington contracted a severe fever and was invalided to England in June 1856. Here, after recovery, he pur- chased his discharge at Chatham for £30 on 20 September 1856, having served 2 years and 240 days.
After leaving the Army he worked as a Railway Post Office clerk and in 1857 he married Frances Emma Harford. Altogether, they had eleven children, although not all survived childhood.
Driven by his studies of Shakespeare he decided to embark on a career as an actor, making his first theatrical appearance in 1862 at the New Royalty Theatre in London. This was followed with several more appearances, mostly in Shakespeare’s plays or other tragedies.
In 1870 he became the lessee and then manager of Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Here came a highlight of Pennington’s career when the then Prime Minister William Gladstone attended one of his performances of Hamlet. The follow- ing March he was invited to Gladstone’s house at 11 Carlton
Survivors of the Light Brigade, 1908. Pennington is on the front row, third from right
