He became a lieutenant and a captain the following year and accompanied his regiment to the Crimea where he took part in the Siege of Sebastopol and the Battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman.

His citation read: Offered to dislodge a party of Russians from the Sand-bag Battery, if any one would follow him; Serjeant Norman, Privates Anthony Palmer, and Bailey (who was killed) volunteered the first.

Lord Salisbury as Foreign Secretary (at which he served four times, and thrice was Prime Minister) appointed Sir Charles as Chairman of the Peruvian Bondholders Committee.

Both Britain and France had large investments to protect: the rise of Peruvian bond stock, they contended was due to debt and military defeats.

The Chileans "received with acclamation" in the City of London, assigning profits of Tarapaca mines and the nitrate-rich Guano Islands to the indebted bondholders.

[3]: 25  The Americans responded, to the alarm of the Foreign Office and Admiralty, by leasing the Peruvian port of Chimbote as a Naval base.