£24 represented the response, so far, of the British public to the appeal made by the Committee for funds to enable provision to be made for the declining days of those of the survivors of the Balaclava Charge who are known to have come to misery and want, and whose number scarcely exceeds twenty... A few shillings weekly could be granted to the necessitous survivors... and thereby relieve them of the fear of starvation and the dread of the workhouse..., Daily Press.
There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.
They felt that Life was fleeting; they knew not Art was long,
Or though they were dying of famine, they lived on in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!
They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey;
Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;
And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes
The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites."
They went without band or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,
To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;
And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed,
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.
They strove to stand at attention, to straighten the toil-bowed back;
They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose knit files fell slack;
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.
The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and, "Beggin' your pardon," he said.
"You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead.
An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell;
For we're all of us nigh to the workhouse, an' we thought we'd call an' tell.
"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir, but couldn't you take an' write
A sort of 'to be continued', and 'see next page' o' the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."
The poor little army departed limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with the 'scorn of scorn'.
And he wrote for them wondrous verses that swept the land like a flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with a thing called Shame.
They sent a cheque to the felon that sprang from an Irish bog;
They healed the spavined cab-horse; they housed the homeless dog;
And they sent (you may call me a liar), when felon and beast were paid,
A cheque, for enough to live on, to the last of the Light Brigade.
O thirty million English that babble of England's might,
Behold, there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night;
Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made..."
And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!
This is the version published in the St James's Gazette, 28th April 1890, and in the Week's News, 24th May 1890. The politically controversial penultimate verse - about giving to causes such as horses and dogs, and above all "to the felon that sprang from an Irish bog" (ironic given the high proportion of Irishmen in the Light Brigade) - was excised from subsequent printings, including the first edition of The Inclusive Edition of Rudyard Kipling's Verse in 1919, and the final Sussex Edition.
The editors are grateful to Diane Oldman and to John Walker, Honorary Librarian of the Kipling Society, for details of publication dates.
The Kipling Society's version can be viewed here (accessed 1.12.2016), together with notes on the text by John McGivering:
"The Last of the Light Brigade"
Kipling Society: Notes [April 16th 2010].
[Verse 1]
Thirty million: the population of England was some 27 million in 1891, and - with Scotland and Wales - some 33 million.
troopers: in this context cavalrymen under the rank of non-commissioned officer, the equivalent of private soldiers in the infantry.
[Verse 2]
life was fleeting ... art was long: an echo of the Latin translation of an aphorism by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates: Ars longa, vita brevis, usually translated in English as 'art is long, life is short'. The full text in Latin is:
Ars longa,
vita brevis,
occasio praeceps,
experimentum periculosum,
iudicium difficile.art is long,
life is short,
opportunity fleeting,
experiment dangerous,
judgment difficult.It should be noted that ars does not signify fine art but the art of some skilled activity - in this context, the art of medicine
they lived in deathless song: the Charge of the Light Brigade was celebrated in prose and verse, most memorably in Tennyson's poem [http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_brigade_notes.htm]
[Verse 2]
to keep the wolf from the door: to ward off starvation.
[Verse 3]
the man who writes: Lord Tennyson - see above
[Verse 4]
colours: the Regimental Colours - the regimental flags which used to be carried into battle. See "The Mutiny of the Mavericks" in Life's Handicap, page 223, line 19.
ten-file strong: Twenty men in two ranks, one behind the other as in a battalion on parade. Each pair formed a 'file' and the strength of a unit was measured in the number of files on parade. (See 'Danny Deever', The Military Setting [http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_brigade_notes.htm])
Master-singer: a highly-accomplished singer; an echo of "The Mastertersingers of Nuremberg" by the German opera composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883). Here it is a reference to Alftred, Lord Tennyson, who was Poet Laureate from 1850 until his death in 1892, and wrote "The Charge of the Light Brigade." [http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_brigade_notes.htm]
[Verse 5]
stand to attention: Stand upright, with the head up, the back straight, the chin in, and the hands down by the sides. See "The Debt" in Limits and Renewals p. 209 line 21.
[Verse 6]
the mouth of hell: an echo of Verse 4 of Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
workhouse: The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 provided that no able-bodied person could get poor relief unless they went to live in special workhouses, where they had to work, often in very harsh conditions, for their food and accommodation. They were greatly feared by the poor and old.
[Verse 7]
someone has blundered: an echo of the first verse of Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
[Verse 8]
"the scorn of scorn" an echo the first verse of Tennyson's "The Poet":
The poet in a golden clime was born,
With golden stars above;
Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,
The love of love...he wrote for them wonderful verses: We have not yet been able to trace further verses by Tennyson supporting the appeal, as Kipling suggests. Any information from readers will be appreciated.
[Verse 9 in the original version]
The following verse of Kipling's poem appears in the St. James' Gazette but is not collected.
They sent a cheque to the felon that sprang from an Irish bog;
They healed the spavined cab-horse; they housed the homeless dog;
And they sent (you may call me a liar), when felon and beast were paid,
A cheque, for enough to live on, to the last of the Light Brigade."The New York Times of November 2nd 1913, on the occasion of the death of Sir George Wombwell, the last surviving officer who had been in the charge, reported contributions from a Liberal Party fund to convicted Irish rebels (the felon ... from an Irish bog), and to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (spavined cab-horse ... homeless dog), with only the balance going to the survivors from the Light Brigade. This seems to be the rationale for Kipling's poem.
The New York Times, of course, may have simply taken Kipling's lines at their face value. We have not been able to verify these points from contemporary accounts.
The NYT also reported that Tennyson then wrote some further verses to encourage popular support for the survivors, and that this resulted in some more substantial contributions. We have not, however, yet traced these lines.
Spavin is a complaint affecting the legs of a horse.
[Verse 9 - as collected]
"honour the charge they made": an echo of verse 6 of Tennyson's poem.
the charge of the Light Brigade: a pun on charge - in this context meaning to look after.
The poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was published in The Examiner on 9 December, 1854.
See The Poems of Tennyson edited by Christopher Ricks, (Longmans Green & Co Ltd,1969, p. 1034) for a note listing variants, and explaining how Tennyson wrote his first version in a few minutes after reading the report in The Times.
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Light_Brigade (accessed 26.1.2016).
Lootens, Tricia (2000). "Victorian poetry and patriotism". In Bristow, Joseph. The Cambridge companion to Victorian poetry. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 269-270. ISBN 0-521-64115-2.