Posts Tagged ‘Hyde Park’

Uniform of Capt & LtCol Percy, VC, Grenadier Guards

The Grenadier Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea, the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

Henry Percy was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards at age nineteen.  After almost twenty years of service, he embarked for the Crimea at age thirty-seven, as a Captain and Lieutenant Colonel (The dual rank system exclusive to Her Majesty’s Guards regiments).

At Alma he was wounded in the arm, but continued to lead his men in battle.  At Inkerman he led a charge into the Sandbag Battery, then held it against repeated Russian assaults by superior numbers.  Having run out of ammunition, he ordered his men to throw stones at the attacking enemy.  The Russians began doing the same, knocking Percy off the parapet once.  Upon his climbing back up, he was knocked senseless with another even larger stone.  He awoke bleeding badly and half blinded, but was able to join his men in a charge driving the enemy down the hill below the battery.  Out of ammunition and cut off, the wounded Percy led his men through dense brush to safety.  He received the Victoria Cross from Queen Victoria, personally, in Hyde Park on 26 June 1857.

This photograph shows his coatee, sash, and epaulettes under an officer’s greatcoat draped over the coatee in the manner commonly worn by officers in the Crimea.  Note that Percy had cut the standing collar from his coatee, no doubt to make it less restrictive on campaign.  The right sleeve of the coatee (not visible under the greatcoat) shows signs of rough field repair and dried blood.  The epaulettes show the grenade of the Grenadier Guards, and the braiding and crown of a Captain and Lieutenant Colonel.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.

Goodlake's Pepperbox Pistol and Bullet Pouch

Lieutenant and Captain (The dual rank system exclusive to Her Majesty’s Guards regiments) Gerald Goodlake, Coldstream Guards, took part in the Battle of Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol. The Coldstream Guards landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the Guards Brigade, 1^st Division, English Army of the East.  These were Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s elite personal guards.  In the Crimea the Guards Brigade consisted of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, and Scots Fusilier Guards.  The Guards’ battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

During a Russian probing action up Windmill Ravine on 28 October 1854, a week prior to the Battle of Inkerman, he led approximately 40 Guards sharpshooters against ten times their number in delaying a Russian flanking movement.  This allowed British reinforcements to arrive and drive the enemy back into Sevastopol.  For his gallantry in this action he was presented the Victoria Cross at Hyde Park by Queen Victoria, personally, on 26 June 1857.  He retired in 1881 as a Major General, and was awarded the Honorary Rank of Lieutenant General.

The photograph is of Goodlake’s  six-shot ‘Pepperbox’ revolving pistol and his leather bullet pouch.  He used these items throughout the Crimean War.  This type pistol, sometimes referred to as a “Pepperpot or Pepperbox”, was manufactured in .36 through .40 calibre, beginning in around 1830.  It was primarily for self-defense.  The six barrels were about 3.5 inches long.  The pistol, itself, was about 9 inches long, and weighed about 2 pounds.

The barrels revolved around a spindle, firing in turn as they came under the hammer.  As the trigger was pulled, the hammer cocked, the barrel rotated, and the hammer dropped on a percussion cap (thus igniting the powder and firing the bullet).  The bullets were round lead balls, loaded from the front of each barrel. Fairmans of London manufactured this particular pistol.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of the Guards Museum, London, UK.