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LIVES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
The E.J. Boys Archive

Last modified 6.5.2016.

IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION

Assistant Surgeon Malcolm Currie ANCELL — 11th Hussars

Also recorded as "Ansell", "Angell".

Birth

Born in London, 1831.

Death & burial

Died in the Crimea in 1855, aged 25.

Malcolm Ancell died in the camp at Kadikoi, about a mile north of Balaclava, on the 10th of August 1855, and was buried in the 11th Hussar cemetery on the road between Kadikoi and Karani.

In 1856 a wooden memorial existed bearing the words:

"Sacred to the memory of Malcolm Currie Angell [sic] Asst. Surgn. 11th (P.O.A.) Hussars, who died August 10th 1855, aged 25 years."

From the memoirs of R.S.M. George Loy Smith:

"Our sergeant [?], Surgeon Ansell [sic], died on the 10th August of a putrid fever. I at once took an inventory of his effects, which I sold by auction in the centre of the encampment a few days afterwards (it being my duty to take possession of and sell by auction the effects of any deceased officers, and after deducting a commission of five per cent to hand over the balance to the major of the regiment.)

When I held up his dress jacket, none of the officers present would bid for it as a change of clothing had taken place, (tunics being substituted in place of dress jackets and pelisses), so I bid 15s. There being no advance I knocked it down to myself.

The other articles were sold equally cheap, the officers not caring to possess the clothing of one who had died from such a terrible disease.

Although Mr. Ansell died in the centre of the encampment, his was the only case of its kind in the regiment during the campaign."

[Source: George Loy Smith, A Victorian RSM, 1987, pp.198-199]


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