A new memorial was unveiled in the village of his birth on 14 September 2011 following a fund-raising campaign by the people of Wigginton.

Described as a labourer, he enlisted in the 4th Queens Own Light Dragoons on 30 July 1831 and was discharged on 1 December 1857 with four good conduct badges, as an out-pensioner of Chelsea Hospital.

At Balaklava, he was serving as an orderly to the regimental commanding officer, Colonel Lord George Paget.

This blemished record explains why Parkes was not awarded the Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, which for the cavalry then required 20 years of irreproachable character.

Parkes thus remained a Private in the 4th Light Dragoons (from 1861, the 4th Hussars - The Queen's Own) throughout his career.

635 Private Samuel Parkes In the charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade at Balaklava, Trumpet-Major Crawford's horse fell, and dismounted him, and he lost his sword; he was attacked by two Cossacks, when Private Samuel Parkes (whose horse had been shot) saved his life, by placing himself between them and the Trumpet-Major, and drove them away by his sword.

[1]The VC citation refers to Hugh Crawford as being a Trumpet Major, but he was not promoted to that rank until 1 December 1855.

He married Ann Jeffrey on 13 February 1858 at St George's, Hanover Square, London; their marriage certificate records that both were then living in Oxford Street.

[5] His discharge papers describe him as 6 ft 2 ins tall with a "fair" complexion, grey eyes and "light" hair.

Was he the John Sneezum who had served as a Private with the 11th Hussars in the Crimean War (regimental number 1432), but probably did not charge at Balaclava?

They sold them, however, to fund their new regimental museum in Trinity Mews, Priory Rd, Warwick CV34 4NA.

[8] The VC was bought at auction by the officers of the 4th Hussars and presented to the regiment on Balaklava Day 1954 to mark the centenary of the battle.

Bought at Sotheby's on 21 December 1879 (lot 275) for £1-12s-0d by Viscount Dillon, he presented it to the Royal United Service Institute Museum c.1920.

At what date either Parkes, or his family, lost or sold his medals is unknown - although in his regiment the story is that one evening, finding himself without money, he used his VC to pay for several pints of beer.

It was sold again in 1953 to an anonymous benefactor of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, together with Parkes' Ghuznee medal.

He gave them both to their Museum but the Norfolks returned them so that they could be offered to the 4th Hussars - whose officers bought them at auction.

As for the duplicate, the RUSI Museum catalogue (1924 edition), states "Experts have been consulted, but they are unable to say which, on comparing them, is the genuine one."

Parkes sold the original, but was given a duplicate which is also in our possession, and which has just been accepted by the Sandhurst Museum on loan from the Regiment.

But a second British Crimean campaign medal with three bars named to Parkes exists - it was shown to Sotheby's and verified by them as genuine in 1972/73.

The 4th Light Dragoons' regimental returns in the Crimean Medal Roll [PRO, WO 100/24] show Parkes' entitlement to the clasp for Alma (at f.203 recto) while there is a dash against Inkerman, noting he had been taken prisoner on 25 October.

The coloured Raphael Tuck oilette postcard (number 9247; artist = H. Montague Love, 1905) in their series 'How he won the Victoria Cross' is an even more fanciful depiction of Parkes, showing him dressed in the uniform of a hussar and saving a lancer.

At least Valentine's "Artotype" series 'The King's Army, 1854' (artist R. Stewart) showed the 4th at Balaklava dressed correctly as dragoons with the right regimental facings, even if the caption called them the 4th Hussars.