Alderman John Ashley Kilvert JP (1833–1920) was an English soldier and later businessman and politician, who became Mayor of Wednesbury, then in Staffordshire, England.

[1] Serving in the British army during the Crimean War, Kilvert took part in the Charge of the Light Brigade, on 25 October 1854.

[1] After some delay, during which he was left in a ditch and later found there half frozen, he was taken to Florence Nightingale's Scutari Hospital, and then to Malta, before being returned to England in February 1855.

Horses were killed, others galloped about riderless and before long, order was abandoned and it was a desperate attempt to cut our way back through as best we could, as the Russians closed in on us.

However, by-and-by, I heard an ambulance coming and, as the boys say, I hollowed with all my might and very thankful, I was picked up and taken aboard the steamer.He subsequently worked as an army recruiter based in Bath.

[1] He was awarded the British Crimea Medal with bars for Alma, Balaklava and Sebastopol,[3] presented to him by Queen Victoria in a ceremony on Horseguards Parade on 18 May 1855.

[8] After his death, Mrs Hands put them up for auction in 2013, when their origin was identified and she agreed to donate them back to the museum.

[8] A portrait of Kilvert, in oil, in which he is shown wearing civic regalia, is also at Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery.

[7] The sword Kilvert used at the Charge of the Light Brigade is in the possession of Sandwell College where one of the floors at Central Campus is named after him.