William Henry Pennington

[3] However, William Henry had a taste for adventure and as a youth joined the Mercantile Marine, serving for about three years on various ships and sailing as far as Australia, the East Indies, Java and Singapore.

[3] On leaving the Mercantile Marine he enlisted in the 11th Hussars on 24 January 1854 at Portobello Barracks in Dublin with the regimental number 1631.

Before joining the Light Cavalry Brigade his previous experience on horseback had been 'a pony ride on Blackheath' as a boy.

Pennington wrote an account of his experience in the Charge during which his horse Black Bess was killed beneath him with a bullet through the head.

[3][5][6][7] Although wounded with a shot to the leg he managed to limp away from danger, determined 'to sell my life as dearly as I might'.

While still a mile away from the starting point of the Charge and in a great deal of pain with his leg he was given a loose horse by some men of the 8th Hussars with whom he fought his way back up the 'Valley of Death' until he lost contact with them.

But worse again - we were obliged to wheel "Right about" and to pass through a strong body of their cavalry which had gathered in our rear, and cutting off our retreat.

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, occasionally catching one a slap with a sword across his teeth, and giving another the point on his arm or breast.

[3] In 1876 Pennington posed for Lady Butler's painting 'Balaclava' (sometimes called 'After the Charge') in which he is the central figure holding a sword.

[8] In her painting Butler uses dramatic and artistic licence in her portrayal of Pennington who in his own account relates that he was unable to walk because of the wound to his leg and had to be lifted from the saddle.

[11] On leaving the Army Pennington briefly worked as a clerk in the Post Office[3] before embarking on a career on the stage, becoming a dramatic actor.

[22] William Henry Pennington died at his home at 34 Albion Road in Stoke Newington from an illness following a stroke in May 1923 and was buried with his family in Abney Park Cemetery.

Mrs Tom Kelly, From the Fleet in the Fifties: A History of the Crimean War (London: Hurst & Blackett, 1902) contains Pennington's account of his Crimea service on pp. 117ff.