Sergeant Frederick Thomas Peake.
13th Light Dragoons.
A Sheppey man.
A survivor of The Charge of the Light Brigade, October 25th 1854.
Born November 17th [1829?].
Died 18th December 1906 aged 77, the last survivor of his battle regiment.
Grave Location Halfway Cemetery site 83FF.
"Many years ago whilst compiling my Family Tree, part of the process was to search all hard copies of the old Sheerness Times/Guardian kept in the Sheerness Library and extract all references to "PENNEY and RELATIONS "I had just started and thought that I would also extract anything else that may be of use to Family Historians having had a lot of help from other people.
For example I noticed a yearly meeting of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade and of course the number attending each year was less and less but I thought this may be of interest to some one some day so I copied these also.
For example, the matinee performance of The Alhambra (?) London in October 1910 was preceded by the Annual Balaclava Reunion and this was attended by some eleven survivors.
In 1979 I wrote to Francis K Horton who was compiling a list of the Survivors of the Charge and he was delighted to receive my letter as the information that he had was F T Peake was buried at Thornton Heath in Surrey. But he could never find the grave. This is because he was taken ill and died at his son's house in Thornton Heath but his body was taken to Sheerness for burial.
He lived at 37 Alma Road and his 75th birthday was November 17th 1907 [1905]..
As Francis was working on his book he asked me to pinpoint the exact location of the grave so I went to the Halfway Cemetery and in the potting shed, among all the flowerpots, plants and dirt, in one of the drawers of the bench were the 4 books containing all the burials from 1850 to 1950. (I photocopied these four books and put them on my web page [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~penney/] should these books be destroyed or lost ).
I located F.T.Peakes's burial site which was a mass of ivy, these I cleared away and there was a broken column on the floor, crossed swords and a shako (hat.) I spent all day cleaning the memorial of ivy and years of accumulated lichen and replacing the broken column, I then took photographs which were sent on to Francis together with the detailed directions on how to reach the grave from the Cemetery entrance He was very pleased and he said they would be in his book, a private edition called "One Hussar" on the Survivors of the Charge.
By 1979 he had located 190 headstones and had approximately another 200 to find with good leads on 80 to 100 of these. He also corresponded with 40 separate descendants of survivors.
In 1892 I wrote to Francis because a member of the Kent Family History Society owned a diary of a soldier written up to the night before the "Charge". And he was allowed access to it, he was delighted.
Francis Horton has given his lecture on The Survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade to York, Hollingham, Norwich, Chelmsford, Bristol and Avon Family History Societies, the FH Federation at Birmingham, the Guild of One Name Studies etc etc, In 1981 he was invited to be the Chairman of Stourbridge Family History Society.
He always starts his talks by blowing the "Charge" on the bugle that was actually used on that fateful day. Very eerie. In the reading room of the National Army Museum they have seven photographs of Sergt. F.T.Peake — one portrait, three of his funeral, one of his memorial, and two groups at reunions.
He treasured the uniform which he wore in the Famous Charge the sleeve of which was perforated by the bullet which wounded his arm and would wear it at Benevolent Concerts in aid of charitable events when he would recite Tennyson poem "Into the Valley of Death".
...He was buried with full Military Honours, the gun carriage drawn by four fine animals, the firing party consisted of 20 strong formed up in single file on either side of his house and presently the bearers came forth carrying their sad burden shoulder high to the gun carriage.The band of the Royal Navy Gunnery School Sheerness was now playing The Dead March by Saul and the sympathetic beat of the muffled drums combined with the softened notes of the cornets at once touched one's emotions.In most cases all house blinds were drawn on the route. The final incident in connection with the funeral was a touching one... It consisted of the firing of three volleys over the grave by the firing party and between each volley two buglers played "The Last Post" and that well known hymn "Now the labourers task is o'er"...
In January 1907 The Town held a meeting to suggest a suitable public Memorial to him as he had resided in Sheerness for a very considerable portion of his life. The Rev. Noblet said that Mr. Peake was always straight forward, upright and most civil and obliging as a civilian. Mr. Peake was willing to do all he could to help anyone in distress. He had dared to die and never liked to speak about himself and the Charge of the Light Brigade. When one spoke to Mr. Peake about the battle he quietly proceeded to talk on another subject. Mr.W J Penney suggested that a committee should be appointed to prepare a scheme to lay before another meeting.This committee could prepare an estimate as to the probable cost of a Memorial. This was agreed upon and the memorial was later erected over his grave.
A headstone of such a soldier should never be allowed to become hidden again. It should be proudly shown and maintained."
[Sources: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~penney/sheppey%20characters/light%20brigade.htm and http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4056.5;wap2, http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4056.0;nowap (accessed 9.10.2014).]
![Photograph of Sergeant Frederick Peake's home, 37 Alma Raad, Sheerness. Click to enlarge.](http://chargeofthelightbrigade.com/allmen/allmenP/allmenP_13LD/peake_f_1309_13LD/peake_f_1309_13LD_37almaroad_7to10.jpg" "Photograph of Sergeant Frederick Peake's home, 37 Alma Raad, Sheerness. Click to enlarge.")
