Service
Ensign in the 53rd. Foot: 23rd of April 1849 [1839?].
Lieutenant in the 78th Highlanders: 29th of April 1842.
Captain, and on to half-pay (unattached): 6th of December 1850.
1851 Census
Bitteswell Hall, Peterborough.
Edward Fellowes, brother, unmarried, 31, Soldier Army Captain, born Falton, Worcestershire.
Staying with brother, Robert, and his wife and family.
There were two other visitors and 12 servants.
Captain in the 3rd Light Dragoons: 18th of July 1851.
Captain in the 12th Lancers: 28th of July 1853.
Major in the 11th Hussars: 12th of December 1854.
Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel, and on to half-pay: 5th of March 1858.
Marriage
On the 6th of March 1865, he married Margaret Augusta, daughter of Major-General John Agmondisham Vesey Kirkland. (He was married at King William's Town, South Africa, his wife's father then commanding the 5th Fusiliers.)
Whether she was nursing before the death of her first husband is not known, but she was selected by Miss Florence Nightingale from St. Thomas's Hospital, London, to be specially engaged for the Egyptian campaign. [See below, for more information.]
Colonel in the Army. (Unattached): 10th of November 1871.
Served as Assistant Adjutant-General at King William's Town, South Africa. He also served at the Cape of Good Hope and in India with the 78th Foot, (2nd Battalion).
On to half-pay: 1st of October 1875.
Major-General: 1st of October 1877.
Campaign service
Major Fellowes served the Eastern campaign of 1854-55, as D.A.Q.M.G. [Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General] of the Cavalry Division, including the affairs of the Bulganak and MacKenzie's Farm, battles of the Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, the Tchernya and the Siege and fall of Sebastopol, (Medal and Clasps, Brevet of Major, the Sardinian Medal and the 5th Class Order of the Medjidie.)
"Horse Guards,
13th July 1857.
Sir, — I am transmitting, by direction of HHR the General Commanding-in-Chief the accompanying Sardinian Medal which has been awarded to the officer named in the margin (Major Edward Fellowes) and I am directed to signify his Highness's desire that you will be pleased to present the same on parade as soon as practicable and with every formality which may tend to impress upon the recipient and upon his comrades the value of the decoration, the receipt of which you will be pleased to acknowledge, and should he have retired, resigned his commission, or is still serving, but not under your command, then the medal should be returned to this Department. This Grant will be published in Orders.
I have, etc. etc.,
W.A.Forster, DAG.
[To:] Officer Commanding 11th Hussars."
Mentioned in despatches after the battle of Balaclava and promoted Brevet-Major for "distinguished conduct in the field." (He had reverted to "substantive rank" for the position of D.A.Q.M.G which he held in the Crimea.)
Extracts from Somerset Gough Calthorpe's "Letters from Headquarters" [add publication details]:
"This morning (the 28th) Lord Raglan decided that a flag of truce should be sent to ascertain what prisoners the Russians had taken on the 25th.
Accordingly he despatched an aide-de-camp to Lord Lucan, requesting him to send a letter by an officer of his Staff to the Russian general commanding the troops on the Tchernya. Lord Lucan entrusted this mission to Captain Fellowes, Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General of the Cavalry Division. He went, accompanied only by the Trumpet-Major of the 17th Lancers [ 416 Henry Joy] bearing a white flag on the end of a lance.
They rode up to our most advanced videttes, and then proceeded at a walk towards the Russian outposts, sounding every two or three minutes.
As they approached they observed a party of some dozen Cossacks ride out towards them, who, when within about 50 yards, halted, and the two officers left them and rode up to Captain Fellowes. He addressed them in French, and informed them that he had a letter from the General commanding the English cavalry to the Russian General commanding the troops on the Tchernya.
He also stated the import of the letter, and added 'that he had seen many dead bodies lying on the ground at the scene of the Light Cavalry charge on the 25th, and begged they would have them interred, or allow us to send parties for the purpose.'
One of the officers, in reply, said he would go and ask the General. He then rode off to the rear with a Cossack orderly. The other officer remained with Captain Fellowes, as he could speak no civilised language but his own, the conversation was necessarily limited. Nevertheless, they managed to fraternise by exchanging cigars and admiring one another's swords, etx.
In a short time the first officer returned, accompanied by an old officer, who was evidently of rank from the respect shown to him. He was at first not very civil, and appeared much annoyed at the remarks which Captain Fellowes had made on the dead being left un-buried.
'Dites a votre General que nous sommes ennimis, mais nous somme Chretiens,' said he.
However, he softened down when he found that Captain Fellowes had brought letters from Russian officers whom we had taken prisoner, and told him that if he would return tomorrow at midday he should have the names of the survivors of the 25th.
On October 29th, Captain Fellowes again went with a flag of truce to the out-posts of the Russians in the valley of Balaclava.
He was immediately met by an officer who gave him a letter from General Liprandi in reply to Lord Lucan's of the day before; from which it appeared they had only two English officer prisoners, namely, Lieutenant Chadwick, Adjutant of the 17th Lancers, and Cornet Clowes of the 8th Hussars, both severely wounded, the former speared in the neck, and the latter in the back. Both had their horses shot under them, and it was in attempting to return to our lines that they were pursued by Cossacks, and wounded in the manner I have described.
Several other wounded officers had been brought into the Russian camp after the action of the 25th, but none survived through the night. They also had some 30 or 40 men as prisoners, the majority of whom were wounded."
[PB, May 2014: His involvement in the events immediately after the Charge was widely reported in the British press; as here, from the Elgin Courant, 18 November 1854. Presumably all of the journalistic detail about the interaction will have come directly from Fellowes himself.
(Click on image to enlarge)
FLAG OF TRUCE — INTERVIEW WITH GORTSCHAKOFF.
Camp before Sebastopol, Oct 28.
After the despatch letter to-day, I learnt that Captain Fellowes, aid-de-camp, had been sent with a flag of truce to the Russian camp on the Tchernaya, to ascertain the particulars of oar loss, and to communicate with our wounded and captive officer?, if the Russians would allow him to do so. Somewhat injudiciously, perhaps, was also authorised to demand permission that we might bury the dead who might have been left in front of the Russian lines. It was imagined that the enemy had not performed this duty, as many bodies could be seen lying unburied the field, and it is not certain that those who fancied they saw those bodies were not quite right.
Captain Fellowes went in, attended a trumpeter, with a flag of truce, and Mr Manassion, an Armenian, attached an interpreter to the headquarters staff. The trumpeter blew a blast from time to time he rode on, and when the little party approached the lines of the Russians, and passed through the fatal field where many of our poor fellows had been mowed down by the deadly artillery enemy, two Russian officers, accompanied by two Cossack Lancers, rode forward to meet them.
The Russians, both of whom spoke French, asked what the object of the flag of truce was ? They were told that Lord Raglan had sent [them] to ascertain what officers of our cavalry were alive in hands of the Russians, and to receive any letters they might be allowed to forward to their countrymen. One of the Russian officers said, "You will be good enough turn round, for you cannot approach our camp so near. This is an affair for the General to deal with and I shall communicate with him."
He rode away, and the remaining Russian and his two Cossacks, having seen that the English officer and his followers turned round as to have their backs to the camp, begged of them to advance still further, so as to recede from the Russian lines, and then accompanied them slowly back with his Cossacks, watching carefully that none of the party moved his head over his shoulder.
They saw as they rode back that some of the dead horses had large pieces cut out of them to furnish food for the Cossacks. Indeed, that is not wonderful, as the Zouaves, in some instances, have cut choice steaks of horse flesh from the bodies of the fatter quadrupeds killed action, and they pronounce them be excellent.
In a few moments an elderly officer, accompanied by a small staff, and attended by the Russian who had ridden to seek him, rode towards their flank, and, in a gruff, harsh voice, exclaimed, "Je suis le general en chef ici; que voulet vouz de moi. Messieurs?" (I am the general-in-chief here; what do you wish with me, gentlemen?) It is supposed that he announced his position for the purpose of preventing Captain asking his name, or demanding information to the title of the person who addressed bim. [lt was afterwards known that was Prince Gortschakoff]
Captain Fellowes explained the object of his mission, and when he came the portion of his message referring to the permission for burying the dead, the Russian General, in tone of great indignation, exclaimed, " We have buried the dead. Tell my Lord Raglan that we are Christians, and though make war, we perform all the duties of Christians! The dead are buried. The wounded are taken care of."
The Russian General then received two letters, supposed to contain money and keys, which Captain Fellowes had been charged with from two Russian officers in our hands. He took out his glasses to read the direction, and as he did so for the first time he deigned to bestow a quick sharp glance over the rim at officer who addressed him. Finally, he declared he did not know the names of the officers in the hands of his troops, but said, that if Captain Fellowes returned to-morrow, he would communicate with him — that would ascertain their names, and would have any letters they might wish to transmit conveyed to him for delivery.
His tone became more courteous towards the close of the interview, and as Captain Fellowes retired, the General said, "Vous m'excuserez si je vous dise que attaque de 25me etaite une attaque bete, parlant selon le loi militaire," (You will excuse me if I tell you that your attack of the 25th was a beastly attack, speaking according to military rule,) words to that effect. Captain Fellowes bowed and retired. We hear there are only three officers of ours alive in their hands. To-morrow will tell more.
SECOND INTERVIEW WITH THE RUSSIANS
October 29.
The hopes entertained fondly that considerable number of our missing officers were the hands of the Russians as captives have been rudely destroyed to-day by the result of Captain Fellowes' mission to their camp. He went at 12 o'clock, with flag of truce, trumpeter, and interpreter, as the preceding day, and was met at greater distance from the camp by an officer, who did not appear to be of high rank, and whom the English " ambassador'' had not seen at his first interview with the Russians.
Captain Fellowes was informed that there were only two British officers in the hands of the Russians — namely, Lieutenant Clowes, 8th Hussars, and Cornet Chadwick, 17th Lancers, and that both these young officers were wounded, though not seriously. Of non-commissioned officers and privates they have 58 prisoners, of whom 15 only are not wounded. It follows that our actual loss in killed the field in that fatal Charge amounts 108 men and II officers.
A Sardinian officer, named Andriani, of a Milanese family, who, with a brother officer in the Piedmontese service, charged along with our Light Cavalry brigade, also prisoner; his thigh is broken. His companion had his horse killed, and his epaulette was torn to pieces by a round shot; but he managed to escape on an English trooper that was galloping past him riderless as he ran through a ruck of Cossacks.
The Russian was the bearer of letters from each of these officers to their friends. They stated they were provided with medical attendance, and were exceedingly well treated, but that they were in great want of clothing, and also needed money. To-morrow steps will be taken to provide them with whatever they require. Lieutenant Clowes, in his letter, expressed his belief that the prisoners were going to be sent on to Simpheropol immediately. The 15 men who are unwounded were all of them dismounted by the enemy's shot. It is added that the officer who received Captain Fellowes expressed his opinion that our attack was a " charge des fous" — "a charge of fools." Very complimentary certainly!