SEVENTEENTH LANCERS
Introduction
In February 1854 the regiment was warned to hold itself in readiness for active service. Between the 18th and the 25th of April 1854 four service troops, comprising a total of 20 officers (including Staff) and 294 other ranks, embarked at Portsmouth in five sailing ships, the Eveline, Pride of the Ocean, Ganges, Blundell, and the Edmundsbury.
Embarkation of the 17th Lancers, Portsmouth [add source]
(Click on image to enlarge)
HMS Ganges
HMS Ganges, photographed at an unknown date. There are other images of the Ganges here [ADD].
(Click on image to enlarge)
Eveline
[PB, June 2017: There is an 1860 painting of the Eveline at Greenwich, but not online at the moment. See http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/14805.html.]
After passing through the Dardenelles all had arrived at Constantinople by the end of May. Passages had taken from twenty-three days to five weeks. Twenty-six horses, but no men, had died on the voyage.
Varna, 1854
On the 2nd of June the regiment sailed for Varna and was there made part of the Light Brigade under Lord Cardigan. Twelve men died of cholera during this stay, and two more on the voyage to the Crimea which was commenced on the 2nd and 3rd of September. Their numbers showed a serious falling off on landing, being reduced to a total of 247 of all ranks.
Crimea, 1854 - 55
Of their part in the Crimean campaign, and the Charge in particular, this is already well known and does not need retelling here.[PB: ?] The number of men on parade that morning of the 25th of October 1854, and the total of dead, wounded and missing at the roll-call, tell their own story.
During the campaign the regiment received 14 officers and 336 other ranks in re-inforcements, lost 5 officers and 110 other ranks dead from various causes, and 16 officers and 70 other ranks were invalided home.
[POWs?]
To Ismid, 1855
About the middle of November 1855 the regiment left Balaclava for Ismid aboard the "Candia" and "Etna", with a strength of 15 officers and 241 other ranks, and 224 horses – a corporal and five men having been left behind in the Crimea to do orderly work.
Home, 1856
Here it remained until April 1856. A sergeant's party of 17 men and 16 horses left for England aboard the "Oneida" on the 27th April, and the bulk - 18 officers and 442 men with 171 horses - embarked in the "Candia", arriving at Queenstown on the 14th of May. The only casualty on this voyage was a single horse.
India, 1857
On reverting to peace-time establishment, the opportunity was taken to get rid of unfit and unwanted men and to transfer many to other units. The Indian Mutiny, however, caused it to be again raised to ten troops. Volunteers from other regiments - among them the 4th, 11th and 13th Hussars, which had also formed part of the Light Brigade - totalled 122 men.
On the 8th of October 1857, the regiment, now of a strength of 20 officers and 483 men and in company with the 8th Hussars, sailed from Cork aboard the "S.S.Great Britain". A voyage of 70 days, marred only by the death of a private from heart disease, brought them to Bombay by the 17th/18th of December. 255 men disembarked on the 19th and 227 on the 21st of December.
Their Colonel, Riding Master, Veterinary Surgeon and the Rough-Riders travelled to India by the overland route with the object of procuring horses on the way. By the 26th of December all were at Kirkee, but a long wait for horses meant that the first squadron, under Sir William Gordon, did not leave until the 27th of May 1858.
This squadron had many adventures before being joined by the remainder and is the subject of a separate medal roll. Many of those whose names appear in this have been noticed in photographs to be wearing a clasp (presumably that for Central India) on their Mutiny medal, but nothing can be found to substantiate this claim and only the medal without clasp is the regiment's entitlement.
The second squadron, under Major White, left Kirkee on the 11th of June 1858 and marched to Sholapoore, where it remained for some time.
The third squadron, under Major Learmonth, left Kirkee on the 11th of June 1858 and marched to Sholapoore, where it too remained for some time. The third, under Major Learmonth, leaving on the 11th of September, marched to Mhow and finally the H.Q. and the remaining squadron, leaving behind a small depot at Kirkee, on the 22nd of September. (This leaving behind of a depot could possibly explain why there are a number of men, some of whom returned home earlier, and others who remained during the whole of the regiment's service in India, who did not get the medal.)
The muster rolls for the period July-September 1858 (when most of the moves of the regiment were taking place) show men as being "On Field Service", "On Detachment at Sholapoor" or no mention in the "Remarks" column of any particular service movement. What is equally confusing, though, is that medals are shown on the medal rolls as being awarded, yet there is no record of the men concerned being engaged in a particular duty which would have entitled them to such.
By the 3rd of December the three squadrons had joined up with that of Captain Gordon and all played their part in the final reduction of Tantia Topee's forces, and with his capture, trial and execution. The Farrier-Major of the time, James Edmunds, is said to have been the hangman.
The 10th of January 1860 saw the regiment on the march to Secunderabad, a "death march" which cost the lives of 38 men from cholera and other diseases. Secunderbad was to be their home for the next five years until on the 16th of December 1864, when, after a foot march of 16 days, they arrived at Sholapore and thence by rail to Poona and Bombay before embarking in the S.S "Agamemnon" on the 21st of January 1865.
During the seven years spent in India it had recruited at various times to a total of 48 officers and 404 men. Its losses, from climatic causes and diseases, through death and invaliding, amounted to 38 officers and 273 men, while 122 were left behind to serve with other regiments in India.
Home (1865), and Africa (1879)
By the 6th of May 1865 they were back in Colchester, Colonel White now being the only officer still remaining who had ridden at Balaclava, although there were still N.C.O.s and men who had taken part. By the time the regiment went to the Zulu War in 1879 only two other ranks (by then themselves officers) were left.
D.H. Parry, Death or Glory Boys
The 17th were then lying at Hounslow, with D troop taking the Hampton Court duty, and the six troops of which the regiment then consisted were at once formed into four for service, and two for the depot at Brighton, the first-named being 314 strong, of all ranks; the latter 72.
By the middle of April, those destined to remain behind had been carefully weeded out and the band broken up.
It had consisted of some 20 performers, many of them foreigners, who claimed their discharge, while about 3 were turned into the ranks.
Two brothers named Deakon - lst cornet and trombone - deserted; were traced to the orchestra at the notorious Argyle Rooms, but, eluding pursuit, were afterwards heard of travelling with Wombwell's Menagerie.
Through Godalming and Petersfield the regiment marched for Portsmouth, the advanced portion being billeted at Emsworth and Havant, until the five merchant vessels hired by Government for their conveyance were ready to receive them.
At last, on Tuesday, 18th April, the Ganges and Pride of the Ocean were alongside the dockyard; the former, officially known as Transport No. 20, being a rapid sailer of about 950 tons; the other, Transport No. 21, a beautiful American clipper ship of 1,400 tons.
The weather was magnificent, the town full of Easter holiday-makers, and the whole place agog to witness the embarkation, the band of the 79th Highlanders marching up the London road to meet the first division and play it to the waterside.
About a mile out, the head of the blue column came in sight, and to the strains of "Cheer, boys! cheer!" and "Oh Susannah, don't you cry for me," the gallant lads, with their red and white pennons fluttering gaily from the lance shafts, rode in through streets thronged with onlookers, who cheered them to the echo, and dismounted near the quay somewhere about ten o'clock.
It was the first time for 46 years that they had left for active service, and only the second occasion in the whole of their history that they were taking their own horses with them.
The mounts were very restive, and the process of slinging them on board the Pride of the Ocean was an exciting one, performed under the eye of their colonel - Lawrenson - and a fashionable gathering.
One man, Housden, was badly kicked on the head, but, in reply to the colonel's inquiry, said it was nothing to the cuts he expected to get before long, and the whole of the 80 horses were eventually stalled in less than three hours, leaving the coast clear for the advent of the second division, which arrived about 3.30, and transferred themselves on to the Ganges, both vessels dropping down to Spithead the same evening.
An idea had gained ground that our cavalry was to be shipped across the Channel, and from thence to make a triumphal progress through Paris to Marseilles, a wag in the French capital going so far as to perpetrate a huge hoax on thousands of the Parisians, who assembled at a Paris terminus to witness their arrival on that very significant of dates - April the First! But a long sea voyage was before them, and, after a variety of experience, they reached the Dardanelles about the middle of May.
On the 18th, the Ganges anchored astern of the Pride of the Ocean, waiting for steamers to tow them up, and the tug, by some mistake, taking charge of the hindmost ship first, a little pleasantry was indulged in as she passed her consort, Captain Winter, of E troop, on the Ganges, telling his trumpeter to sound "revallay" - a kind of "Now then, you fellows, wake up!"
The skipper of the other vessel was not to be outdone, though, and, shaking loose his foresails, forged ahead and passed the Ganges; whereupon, Captain Webb, of D troop, ordered his trumpeter, Landfried, who still survives, to sound the "Trot!"
It is said that while waiting the arrival of the tugs, Captain Winter and Cornet Cleveland were rowed ashore in a boat, and, making a bet who would land first, both jumped over in shallow water and splashed their way towards the beach, Winter, a very tall man, winning, and so enjoying the honour of being the first of the Cavalry Brigade to touch Turkish ground. Alas! neither of them was destined to set foot on English soil again!
The regiment walked its horses ashore at Kulali - twenty-six had died on the voyage - and on the 30th May it was inspected by the Sultan, Abdul-Medjid, at Scutari, and, re-embarking on 2nd June, sailed for Varna, where it swam its cattle from the ships, and there became part of Cardigan's immortal Light Brigade on the 4th.
On the 8th it marched to Devna, eighteen miles off, encamped there until the 28th July, and moved on to Yeni-bazar, where cholera came into its ranks and carried off 12 men.
It was back in Varna at the end of August, and, embarking on the 2nd and 3rd September, sailed for the Crimea, losing 2 more men on the voyage, and landed on the 17th at Kalamita, or, as our fellows called it, "Calamity" Bay.
The regimental strength was then only 247 of all ranks, and on the 19th the allied army set out on its march towards Sebastopol.
[DH Parry, Death or Glory Boys, (1899, 1903 edition) pp.201-
[More...]
Tony Margrave's notes from his Newsletter on the transport of the 17L to and from the Crimea, mainly drawn from The Times.
Tony Margrave, 2009:
The regiment, with 20 officers and 295 (says 294 at the end of the entry) men embarked aboard five sailing transports in England in April 1854. It arrived at Constantinople at the end of May and transferred across the Bosphorus to Kulleli several miles above Scutari, where it was housed in a Turkish barracks.
On June 2, it embarked aboard the same five vessels and was landed at Varna on June 4, 1855. On June 8, 1854 it marched to Devna and encamped there till July 27, 1854 with the other regiments of the Light Cavalry Brigade. On July 28, 1854 the Light Cavalry Brigade marched to Yeni-Bazaar. The 25 miles journey via Kotlube, Yasytepe and Jargago, ended with its arrival on August 1, 1855 at Yeni-Bazaar.
On August 25, 1854 the regiment set out with the other regiments of the Brigade for Varna, arriving on August 28, 1854. There it embarked on September 2 and 3, 1854 aboard four vessels (which included the Himalaya and Trent) for the Crimea. The headquarters disembarked form the Trent on September 18, 1854. It was engaged at Balaklava, October 25, 1855. It was encamped near Inkermann in November where it had two casualties on November 5, 1854.
[Source: Tony Margrave, Newsletter 1, January 2009.]
Tony Margrave, 2011:
17th Lancers
To Turkey & Varna
This Regiment returned from India in August 1847, and served at home until it proceeded to join the Army in the East. The Corps consisting of 20 officers and 295 men, embarked for Turkey in April 1854, and were distributed in five sailing transports, which after a very fair passage, averaging from twenty-three days to five weeks in length, arrived at Constantinople at the end of May [1854] The Regiment was landed at Kulleli ... (Medical and Surgical History of the British Army which served in Turkey and the Crimea during the War against Russia during the years 1854-55-56, 1858. Vol. 1, p.90)
On the 2nd of June [1854] the Regiment re-embarked aboard the vessels in which it had come from England, and which were now towed by steamers to Varna, where the Corps landed on the 4th [June 1854] (Medical and Surgical History of the British Army which served in Turkey and the Crimea during the War against Russia during the years 1854-55-56, 1858. Vol. 1, p. 90)
The 17th Lancers arrived at Cosham, near Portsmouth, yesterday, to await the arrival of the transports which are taken up to embark them for the East. They will remain billeted at Cosham, Havant, Fareham, Emsworth, and adjacent villages to Portsmouth until embarked. (The Times, April 13, 1854, p.12, Column A)
Nine transports were hourly expected yesterday at Portsmouth from the eastward, five of which are to convey the 17th Lancers to the seat of war, and four to receive stores and provisions from the Clarence-yard for conveyance to the fleets. (The Times, April 14, 1854, p.8, Column A)
The 17th Lancers Captain Winter's troop, consisting of Lieutenants Learmouth and Hartopp, Ensign Sir George Hector Lee, Bart, Assistant Surgeon Dr. Kendal, and 70 men and horses, embarked yesterday morning at 11 o'clock from Portsmouth Dockyard in the fine clipper ship Pride of the Ocean for Turkey. Captain Webb's troop, consisting of Lieutenant Thompson, Cornet Wombwell, and 65 men and horses, embarked at 4 o'clock from the Dockyard jetty on board the transport Ganges. These vessels were towed to Spithead, whence they sail for their destination. On marching into the garrison of Portsmouth through the chief street of Portsea they were enthusiastically greeted by the population. Cavalry never being quartered now in Portsmouth district, the appearance of the Lancers excited much admiration among the inhabitants. The embarcation was personally superintended by Colonel Laurenson, of the Lancers, and the Brigade-Major of Portsmouth garrison. The transports for the head-quarters of the Lancers has not arrived at Portsmouth yesterday. (The Times, April 19, 1854, p.9, Column B)
The Blundell transport shipped Captain's White troop (about 50 men and horses) of the 17th Lancers at Portsmouth dockyard yesterday morning, and left at 3 p.m for Turkey ... The embarkation of the remainder of the Lancers (the head-quarters) will be completed on Tuesday, in the Eveline and Edmundsburg. (The Times, April 24, 1854, p. 12, Column B)
The Edmundsbury, hired transport, embarked the fourth portion of the 17th Lancers at Portsmnouth dockyard yesterday morning, consisting of Captain Morgan, Lieutenant Musgrove, Dr. Powell, and 40 men and horses, and sailed with them in the afternoon for Turkey. The headquarters and last troop will embark this morning in the Eveline. (The Times, April 25, 1854, p. 10, Column A)
a) Blundell: The Blundell transport shipped Captain White's troop (about 50 men and horses) of the 17th Lancers at Portsmouth dockyard yesterday morning, and left at 3 p.m for Turkey. (The Times, April 24, 1854, p. 12, Column B)
The Eveline and Blundell, having detachments of the 17th Lancers on board, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrenson, put into Gibraltar on the 3d, having lost four horses on the voyage They proceeded on the same day for the East. (The Times, May 15, 1854, p.12, Column A)
Our advices from Malta, dated the 17th of May, mention "That the continued arrival of English and French troops, enroute to the eastward, forms the only subject of information of the least interest [including] By the Blundell, 45 horses, Captain White, Lieutenant Thomson, Assistant-Surgeon Brady [no such person with 17th Lancers], Veterinary Surgeon Constant, and 55 rank and file of the 17th Lancers. (The Times, May 25, 1854, p. 9, Column C)
NB The muster rolls say the following officers were shipped to Constantinople aboard the Blundell, April 23 to May 23, 1854: Capt R White, Lt J H Thomson, & Vet Surgn S P Constant. Also that this vessel carried the following officers to Varna on June 2 and 3, 1854: Capt R White & Lt J H Thomson.
b) Edmundsbury: The Edmundsbury, hired transport, embarked the fourth portion of the 17th Lancers at Portsmouth dockyard yesterday morning, consisting of Captain Morgan, Lieutenant Musgrove, Dr. Powell [no such person with 17th Lancers], and 40 men and horses, and sailed with them in the afternoon for Turkey. (The Times, April 25, 1854, p. 10, Column A)
Our advices from Malta, dated the 17th of May, mention "That the continued arrival of English and French troops, enroute to the eastward, forms the only subject of information of the least interest [including] by the Edmundsbury, Captain Morgan, Lieutenant Knight, Paymaster Stephenson, Surgeon Powell [no such person with 17th Lancers], and 40 troopers of the 17th 17th Lancers. (The Times, May 25, 1854, p. 9, Column C)
NB. The muster rolls say the following officers were shipped to Constantinople aboard Edmundsbury, April 24 to May 23, 1854: Capt G C Morgan, Lt W W Knight, Paymaster Stephenson.
c) Eveline: The Eveline, hired transport, embarked the headquarters of the 17th Lancers, under Colonel Lawrenson, at Portsmouth dockyard yesterday morning, and sailed in the evening for Gallipoli. She takes also a quantity of stores for the troops. (The Times, April 26, 1854, p.12, Column E)
The Eveline and Blundell, having detachments of the 17th Lancers on board, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrenson, put into Gibraltar on the 3d, having lost four horses on the voyage They proceeded on the same day for the East. (The Times, May 15, 1854, p.12, Column A)
NB The muster rolls say the following officers were shipped to Constantinople aboard Eveline, April 25 to May 18, 1854: Lt Col Lawrenson, Lt P Musgrave, Adj J Chadwick, QM J Yates, & Surgn Gibsone (thence to staff). Also that this vessel carried the following officers to Varna on June 2 and 3, 1854: Capt R White & Lt J H Thomson. Also that this vessel carried the following officers to Varna on June 2 and 3, 1854: Capt R P Winter, Lt Learmouth, Cornets Cleveland & Wombwell, & Paymaster Stephenson.
d) Ganges: Captain Webb's troop, consisting of Lieutenant Thomson, Cornet Wombwell [The muster rolls show he arrived at Constantinople but do not say by which vessel], and 65 men and horses, embarked at 4 o'clock from the Dockyard jetty on board the transport Ganges. (The Times, April 19, 1854, p.9, Column B)
The Ganges transport, with the second troop of the 17th lancers, left Portsmouth harbour yesterday afternoon for Turkey. (The Times, April 20, 1854, p. 12, Column A)
NB The muster rolls say the following officers were shipped to Constantinople aboard Ganges, April 19 to May 20, 1854: Capt J P Winter, Lt Learmouth, Cornet A Cleveland, & Cornet Wombwell. Also that this vessel carried the following officers to Varna on June 2 and 3, 1854: Lt Col Lawrenson, Capt G C Morgan, Lt W W Knight, P Musgrave, Adj J Chadwick, QM J Yates, & Vet Surgn S P Constant.
f) Pride of the Ocean: The 17th Lancers - Captain Winter's troop, consisting of Lieutenants Learmouth and Hartopp, Ensign Sir George Hector Lee, Bart [no such person with the 17th Lancers], Assistant Surgeon Dr. Kendal, and 70 men and horses, embarked ye3tsrday morning at 11 o'clock from Portsmouth Dockyard in the fine clipper ship Pride of the Ocean for Turkey. (The Times, April 19, 1854, p.9, Column B)
The Pride of the Ocean transport, with the first troop of the 17th Lancers on board, sailed from Spithead yesterday morning for Turkey. (The Times, April 20, 1854, p. 12, Column A)
NB The muster rolls say the following officers were shipped to Constantinople aboard Pride of the Ocean, April 18 to May 20, 1854: Maj Willett, Capt A F Webb, Lt Sir Wm Gordon, J W Hartopp, Asst Surgn H Kendall. Also that this vessel carried the following officers to Varna on June 2 and 3, 1854: Maj Willett, Capt A F Webb, Lt Sir Wm Gordon, J W Hartopp, & Asst Surgn H Kendall.
[Source: Tony Margrave, Newsletter 37, June 2012.]