On 14 Dec 2016, Stewart McLaughlin, Hon. Curator of the Prison Museum, Wandsworth, emailed:
Dear Sirs,
I was told some years ago that a Warder at Wandsworth Prison had been part of the Charge of the Light Brigade. A member of staff may have also had had a newspaper clipping of his funeral but this was over 20 years ago when it was mentioned.
There appears to have been confirmation in a Victorian book about London prisons where the authors, Mayhew and Binny, referred to a Warder who had been present at the charge but did not state his name.
Do you know of a Wandsworth Prison Warder who was part of the charge?
Any information would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
Stewart McLaughlin
Hon. Curator, Wandsworth Prison Museum.
[PB could find nothing at the time, but Wendy Leahy came up with two cuttings, including one from Mayhew and Binny that Stewart McLaughlin had mentioned.]
On the mantelpiece of the porter's-lodge lies a Bible, a beautiful symbol of the character of this excellent establishment.
In the company of the deputy governor, we leave the porter's-lodge, and pass through the courtyard, which is gravelled and carefully drained. We enter the prison by a flight of steps, where one of the long corridors of the interior opens to our view.When near the entry door the chief warder conducted us into the inner porter's-lodge, where a Crimean soldier, one of the light cavalry brigade, who took a part in the daring charge at Balaclava under Lord Cardigan, officiates as warder. He is a strong-built powerful man, in the prime of life, more like a heavy dragoon than a light-armed hussar.
In the lodge of the inner warder, is a large yellow oaken cupboard. Here are contained the keys of the prison, all systematically arranged and suspended along its interior during the night. The governor then keeps the key of the cupboard, and at six o'clock in the morning it is delivered to this chief warder, and given by him to the inner porter, when the keys of the prison are distributed among the different officers.
We noticed a dark painted tin box in the cupboard. The inner porter informed us, "It is for the purpose of keeping the master keys belonging to the governor, surgeon, chaplain, and chief warder."
The chief warder remarked, with reference to these master keys, " They are for the external doors, cell doors, and mortice locks of the offices and lodges."
The inner warder, pointing to a deal table in the apartment, stated it is used for the purpose of the governor or chief warder signing the receipts of prisoners delivered by the prison vans for incarceration in the prison. In this apartment the male prisoners are discharged by the governor. Here they are ranged before him, seated at this table, before they leave the walls of the establishment.
The inner porter called our attention to a book kept for inserting the names of visitors to the prison, along with their address and the name of the officer who attends them. There is a column for any observations they may make as to the arrangements of the prison. This book generally rests on another small table in a corner of the lodge.
[Henry Mayhew and John Binny, Criminal Prisons of London, and Scenes of Criminal Life, (1862). pp.503-4.]
