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Auction: 5012 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 568

Group of Three to Colonel Soame Gambier Jenyns, 13 Light Dragoons, The Senior Surviving Officer of the Regiment after the Charge of the Light Brigade Crimea 1854-56, three clasps, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Cpt Soame Gambier Jenyns 13th LD), engraved in serif capitals, extremely fine; Turkish Crimea, British type, edge engraved ´Cpt. Soame Gambier Jenyns 13th LD´, pierced for suspension as issued, with silver top riband buckle, very fine; Turkey, Order of the Medjidieh, 5th Class breast Badge, gold, silver and enamel, the reverse engraved ´Captain Soame Gambier Jenyns´, red enamel damage to suspension otherwise good very fine, with three pieces of original riband, a plain and damaged top riband bar on the Turkish Crimea riband (3) Estimate £ 8,000-10,000Colonel Soame Gambier Jenyns C.B. ( 1826-73), of Bottisham Hall, Cambridgeshire; Cornet 1845; Lieutenant 1847; Captain 1850; embarked for the Crimea 8.5.1854; took part in the Reconnaisance on the Danube under Lord Cardigan (in command of the Squadron of 13 Light Dragoons), was present at the affairs of Bulganak and M´Kenzies Farm. Commanded B Troop in the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava 25 October. As the senior surviving officer, he assumed command of the Regiment after the Charge. The Manuscript Regimental Record of the Charge gives the following brief account: ´About 2p.m. on the same day Lord Cardigan received an order to charge with the Light Brigade, which at that time was formed in Line across the second plain from Balaklava. Lord Cardigan formed the Brigade into two lines as follows: 1st Line, the 13 Light Dragoons on the Right, 17 Lancers in the Centre and 11 Hussars on the Left, 2nd Line or Support, 8 Hussars on the Right, and 4 Light Dragoons. The first Line advanced at a trot, closely followed by the 2nd Line. The first Line had not advanced many hundred yards before a Russian Battery of guns placed on a hill on the Right opened fire, immediately followed by another Russian battery on a hill to the left. The first Line broke into a gallop, and immediately after a Battery, extending right across the plain (which had become so narrow by this time that Lord Cardigan doubled back to the 11 Hussars for the purpose of forming a second line), opened fire, thus exposing the whole Brigade to a sharp line in front and from the right and left, all at the same time. But on went the Brigade, cutting their way through the Battery in front and through the whole force of the Russian Cavalry and Infantry, who were formed up in rear of the guns.´ In a letter to Charles Goad, brother of Captain Howard Goad who fell in the charge, Jenyns records ´We were half down before we reached the guns, but the men behaved like men and never wavered an inch. Grape and Shells cutting them to pieces. We drove them 500 yards from the guns and if there had been a support to walk them off all might have been taken. They cut in every direction. We had to fight our way back too through 2 Regiments of Lancers who came on our rear - never was such a murder ordered. We went 110 into it and lost 76 horses killed 10 wounded, 7 officers horses killed 46 men killed missing and wounded. However poor Howard fell in as they say about the most daring charge ever seen. The Light Brigade are half gone. The 13th and 17th going in first lost most. The rest of the Light Brigade were considerably to the rear till we cleared the guns. Oh that they had sent the Heavy Brigade to support us. The Lancers made a beautiful charge in an open plain a little earlier and sent double their number flying back. The Turks never stood one moment, and deserted our guns without an effort... I got a lucky escape. Poor Moses was shot through the shoulder, through the thigh, two grape or shell through my cloak and a spent ball gave me a crack on the knee. Poor Moses just carried me back- I do so deplore not having seen Howard myself. He fell so in the centre of the Enemy´s position that it is impossible to go and look for him, and a flag of truce is no use with Cossacks... Oldham was seen dead on top of three horses, some of the guns were spiked I believe, and I shot two wheelers in two guns coming back when all chance of capturing them was over.´ (This letter, with a posy of pressed fresh flowers picked from the battlefield a few days after the Charge, was recently bequeathed to the British Library by an American collector.) In another letter Jenyns wrote afterwards, ´Seventy-six troopers´ and seven officers´ horses killed on the spot, ten shot afterwards, and eight wounded still alive. I only brought nine mounted men back! Poor old Moses was shot through his shoulder and through the hip into his guts, but just got me back. I had some narrow shaves, as indeed we all had. My cloak rolled in front had three canister-shot through it, besides a piece of shell knocking off the end of it, and catching me on the knee, but only a small bruise.´ Captain Percy Smith, also of the 13 Dragoons, wrote ´ You have, of course, seen all the accounts of our charge in the papers, so I will try not to tell you anything more about it, except that Jenks (Jenyns) was worth his weight in gold. He was everywhere and kept his head as well as if he had been at a common field day. He was on ´Moses´. The good old horse got shot in four places, and was only just able to get back to the Heavies, behind whom we formed up.´ Jenyns was appointed Brevet-Major 12.12.1854 and on his return to England was briefly with the Cavalry Brigade and as Major with the 18 Hussars before taking up command as Lieutenant Colonel 13 Light Dragoons 24.5.1861; Brevet-Colonel 1866, and Assistant Adjutant General, Horse Guards; Colonel Jenyns died 26.11.1873 at the family seat at Bottisham and is buried in the family vault at Bottisham church where there is also a window dedicated to his memory in the chancel east wall.

Sold for
£8,000