09 Dec 2021
On This Day
9 December 2021 Cheryl

9 December 1854: The Charge of the Light Brigade is published

The Charge of the Light Brigade

On 25 October 1854 the British Light Brigade was mauled by Russian gunners as they charged at the battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. Despite being a strategic failure, the courage of the British cavalry – immortalised by Lord Tennyson’s poem – has lived on in popular culture and legend. [1]

The Charge of the Light Brigade is an historically important poem written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It tells of the bravery of the British cavalry in the Crimean War. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom at the time.

Tennyson wrote the original version of the poem in a few minutes on 2 December 1854, based on The Times newspaper’s reporting of the British cavalry charge over open terrain against Russian troops during the October 1854 Battle of Balaclava. Tennyson saw this as a suicidal mission for the six hundred and thirty-seven men involved. It was published on 9 December 1854 in The Examiner and became very well known in its own day, remaining so today.

At the suggestion of Jane, Lady Franklin, Tennyson sent a thousand copies of a single-sheet version of the poem to be distributed amongst soldiers in the Crimea.

Following some criticism, Tennyson revised the poem and the subsequently updated and expanded version was included in Maud and Other Poems (1855). He also recited this poem onto a wax cylinder in 1890, immortalising his voice reading this stirring work.