63
Far left: Alma Steps, Kingswear Left: Alma Villa, Dartmouth Above: Alma Cottage, Dartmouth
Below: Grave of Denzil Thomas Chamberlayne, 13th Light Dragoons, St Petrox, Dartmouth
Longcross Cemetery. Tough no general memorial was erected in Dartmouth, Crimean veterans like Winsland became more celebrated as the decades passed. To break the siege, the Russians
first attacked the British supply base at Balaklava, to the south of Sevastopol, on 25 October. Te inner defences held, but as the Russians fell back, they began to take away some captured British guns. Te Light Brigade was ordered to “prevent the enemy carrying away the guns” – but, notoriously, the order failed to make clear which guns were meant. Under heavy fire, the Brigade charged down the valley towards Russian guns and the Russian cavalry. Casualties were many, though not as many as first reported in the British press – and despite their losses, the Light Brigade succeeded in chasing the Russian cavalry off the battlefield. But Tennyson’s famous poem, which the Dartmouth Chronicle reproduced in January 1855, came to epitomise the British view of the war. At the front of the charge were
the 13th Light Dragoons, amongst whom was Denzil Chamberlayne.
He survived, though his favourite horse, Pimento, was shot dead underneath him. Chamberlayne retired from the Army in 1859 and married his cousin Frances in 1867. Tey came to live in Dart- mouth, at Cliſton Villa, Southtown; as a participant in the (in)famous charge, he attracted considerable interest.
Expecting
a quick victory, allied commanders had not planned for an arduous and protracted siege in a freezing Crimean winter
But Chamberlayne was an unhappy man. He suffered from alco- holism and was of- ten violent. In 1872 Frances obtained a judicial separa- tion, with custody of their daughter; and leſt Dartmouth. Captain Chamberlayne
died the following year, aged
only 39. His grave can be found in St Petrox churchyard. On 5 November 1854, the Rus-
sians attacked again, behind the British lines at Mount Inkerman.
Tere was heavy fighting and the day was only saved by the arrival of French reinforcements. Amongst the losses was Captain Sir Robert Lydston Newman. Born in 1822 at Sandridge House on the Dart, he had joined the Grenadier Guards for the campaign. He was the leading member of the Newman family, prominent in Dartmouth for several centuries. According to the Dartmouth Chronicle, he “was ever forward in assisting any undertaking of a local character”, having given land for the new coast road between Dartmouth and Kingsbridge. Expecting a quick victory, allied
commanders had not planned for an arduous and protracted siege in a freezing Crimean winter. Troops faced appalling conditions and to make things worse, there was a cholera pandemic (the cause of the disease was not yet under- stood). Deaths rose quickly, and with them, public anger about the
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