One for Liverpool Annie Part 2

[liverpool annie]

It's a good one isn't it ? ... I have used it but I seem to be able .... with my butterfly mind .... to find stuff all over the place !! 

I stay on topic ...... only sometimes !!

I'm amusing myself here and just putting down what I find interesting !! 

But thanks for looking Phil .... at least I know you and Wendi keep tabs on me !!   

[liverpool annie]

Valetta Malta June 19th ... Sir John Elijah Blunt British Consul at Boston from 1899 - 1902 died here today at the age of 84 . Sir John who was knighted in 1902 had been in the consular service since 1850 much of the time in Turkey
June 20 1916 The New York Times

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E0DE7DB173BE633A25753C2A9609C946796D6CF

Sir John Elijah BLUNT, aged 86 years. Born in Adrianople the son of Charles Blunt and Caroline, nee Vitalis. His father had been HM Consul in Smyrna.  From 1850 he worked in the Consular Service mostly in Mediterranean countries and made it his career. During the Crimean War he was secretary to Lord Lucan, and served as Chief Interpreter to the Calvary Division. He was present at the battles of Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman, and awarded the Crimean Medal with the three clasps. After the war he held numerous diplomatic posts representing HM Government in Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria, and for short terms he acted as the Consul for France, Germany, and Belgium in Greece and Turkey. His last post from 1899 to 1902, was in Boston, U.S.A.  He was buried 19th May 1916

http://website.lineone.net/~stephaniebidmead/BritishResidents1900-1979.htm

Sir John Elijah Blunt, 1832-1916 was a distinguished British consul of the late nineteenth century, with numerous family ties to the consular service. He was the son of Charles Blunt, HM Consul at Smyrna, and of Caroline Vitalis, daughter of HM Consul at Brussa. After education privately and at Kensington Grammar School, Sir John first came to prominence as chief interpreter and aide-de-campe to Lord Lucan during the Crimean War, being present at the battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman. Having held various consular appointments in Uskub, Adrianople, Belgrade and Bitholia, he was appointed HM Consul-General for Salonica, 1879-1899, and HM Consul (with the rank of Consul General) at Boston, 1899-1902. He was created Companion of the Bath in 1878 and knighted in 1902, the year of his retirement to Malta, after more than half a century of consular activity.

http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/2004/06/sir-john-elijah-blunt-1832-1916.html

[liverpool annie]

Well ........ !! ... I came across this ... and wow what an exciting life this soldier led !! and as I love to chase balloons every October in New Mexico .... I think he's quite fascinating !!


"Argentine history also recounts the story of one called Robert Chodasiewicz, who fought in the Polish uprisings of the 1840's, was sent to Siberia, received the British Crimean Medal, fought with Grant in the United States Civil War and then relocated to Argentina where he became "Primer Aviador" (the first Argentine flier-balloonist)."

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Adolph Chodasiewicz (1832-1896)

He was born in Wilna (or Vilna), Poland, February 29, 1832, the son of Simón Chodasiewicz and Filipina Ravené, a family descendant from the count of Habdang. That year, his father, who had participated in an insurrection against Czar Nicholas I in 1831, in trying to obtain freedom for Poland, was confined by the authorities. Under those circumstances, he obtained work as the administrator of an agricultural colony in the neighborhood of Staraia, (Department of Novogorod), under the condition that his male children, from 9 to 11 years of age, would enter Military School.

During 1853, Russia and Turkey entered into conflict for control over the Crimea (1853-1856); in this fight, for different reasons, France and Great Britain were also involved and on the 28th of March, 1854, declared war on Russia. Robert A. Chodasiewicz, with the rank of Lieutenant with troops control, was assigned to the Tarutino Regiment that was mobilized to the zone of conflict. There he performed missions of a scientific type and intelligence, dedicated primarily to the field of engineering (topographic improvements, defensive installations, etc). The nature of these activities was the one that with the accumulated military experience and the different particular tasks developed in compatible fields, acquired the title and specialization of engineer. The 20th of September of that year, he participated in the battle of Arroyo Alma with a shining performance, reason for which the "Order of San Vladamir" was granted to him. Soon, under the direction of German Engineer Todleben, between the 25th of September and the 3rd of November, he participated in the planning and construction of the fortifications of Sebastopol, which the French and English began to attack at the end of the 17th of October, 1854.

He participated in the battle in the city of Balaklava where the fame of the Light Cavalry was initiated, under the command of Count de Cardigan, when he went to the center of the enemy position, in crease, charging against it and incurring an excessive number of casualities.

The 5th of November, he fought in the battle of Inkerman, where Chodasiewicz was wounded by bayonet in the left hand during a enemy assault on his positions. By this action, he was promoted to the degree of Captain and commisioned to the village of Churgun to begin topografic improvements to the British fortifications in Balaklava.

Initially he was suspected to be a spy he was stopped 10 days by the head of the British troops James Henry Somerest Fitzroy, later, Lord Raglan (1788-1855) and was assigned different technical missions. His extraordinary technical capacity enabled him to propose the formation of an intelligence unit. The Department of Secret Inteligence organized (Secret Intelligent Departament), to which an office of interpreters in charge of Mr. Jackson was added to him. After that, the Russians organized operations behind the lines, which allowed him, in addition, to spy on the military post office and to maintain correspondence with the assistant of the Russian Commander-in-Chief, Prince Gorchakoff.

Lieutenant Colonel Chodasiewicz passed away in the city of Buenos Aires August 17 1896.

Please read his "hard to believe " story below !!

http://www.earlyaviators.com/echodase.htm

Over the nineteenth century was also used for military purposes during the War of the Triple Alliance a captive balloon Brazilian army allowed to observe artillery Paraguayan, this observation was conducted on July 6, 1866 in which Argentine military engineer of Polish origin Roberto A. Chodasiewicz became the first Latin American military balloon rise in

http://www.rootschat.com/links/033w/

[liverpool annie]

GOUGH-CALTHORPE, Somerset John B. 23 Jan 1831 - D. 16 Nov 1912 age 81 years  England
Son of Frederick, fourth Baron Calthorpe, and of Lady Charlotte Sophia Somerset, eldest dau of sixth Duke of Beaufort

Somerset John Gough-Calthorpe was a nephew of Fitzroy James Henry Somerset, otherwise known as Lord Raglan. Therefore it is no surprise that Somerset was an aide de campe to Raglan during the Crimean War.

Somerset John Gough-Calthorpe was present at the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman and Sevastopol. In fact he was wounded by shell fragments at Balaklava, and may have had to be nursed at Scutari Hospital. His horse Prodigy went with him to the Crimea and died in 1861. Calthorpe was so fond of his horse that he had a snuffbox made from Prodigy's hoof. You can see the snuff box on display at the Royal Armouries Leeds in the War Gallery.

After the Battle of the Alma he remarked that three times as many English soldiers' bodies lay torn and mangled on the battlefield than French or Russian soldiers. He observed 'that those shot through the heart or forehead appeared to have died with a smile on their faces, generally speaking lying flat on their backs, with the arms spread out and the legs rather apart....Those who appeared to have died in the greatest pain were shot through the stomach; these had always their legs and arms bent and with all the expression of agony on their faces.'

Calthorpe wrote a book about his experiences in the Crimea in 1857 called 'Letters from Headquarters on the realities of the war in the Crimea: by an Officer of the Staff'. Lord Cardigan took offence at the way he was portrayed in these memoirs and in the Spring of 1863 took a libel action out against Somerset Calthorpe. This was after he had tried and failed to get Calthorpe court-martialled for his comments.

Lord Cardigan was particulary irritated by the allegation that he was not present at the critical point before the Charge of the Light Brigade. As Cardigan was the Lieutenant General in charge of the Light Cavalry Brigade at Balaklava, this was damning indeed. The case, however, never came to trial.

This sword is a presentation sword with the following inscription.

'Presented by The Yeomanry of the Honble. F.H.W.G. Calthorpe to his brother Major the Honble. Somerset John Gough Calthorpe of the 8th Hussars Aide de Campe to the late Lord Raglan on his safe return from the Crimea As a token of their Appreciation of and Esteem for his Character November 1855'.

[liverpool annie]

Charge of the Light Brigade - Kipling's response

In 1881 Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem in response, entitled The Last of the Light Brigade, which attempted to shame the British public by depicting the difficult conditions suffered by the survivors of the Light Brigade.

The Last of the Light Brigade
 
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 that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived 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 bands 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 to 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 wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.

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!

Rudyard Kipling

[liverpool annie]

I wonder who this is .... any ideas ?? not on the VC list either !! 

Died. John Harling, 93, a member of the famed group of British soldiers who charged the Russians during the Crimean War and were immortalized by Poet Tennyson in "The Charge of The Light Brigade," recipient from the hands of Queen Victoria of the Victoria Cross; at Quincy, Mass., in the night.

Time magazine Monday, Jan. 25 1926

LIGHT BRIGADE SOLDIER 'DIES' John Hatting ( sic )  a Member of Famous British Cavalry Unit, Was 93.

NY Times January 16 1926 Saturday

* EJ Boys - Harling Pte Richard 1393 4th LD ( ? )

[liverpool annie]

I hadn't seen this picture before .... had you ? ....... 

1921 - Pictured is last survivor Sergeant Major Edwin Hughes and written about in article entitled STATESMEN, FINANCIERS AND SURVIVORS OF FAMOUS EPOCHS in an unusual photograph entitled LAST OF THE SIX HUNDRED, the last survivor of the famous Light Brigade at Bakaklava as saved from this old American pictorial magazine.

http://genealogyimagesofhistory.com/images3/John-W-Inzer.jpg

[liverpool annie]

Private James  Donaldson       4th Light Dragoons (Queen's Own) Killed in Action  at Balaklava  25 October 1854     

http://seerargent.livejournal.com/8234.html

* EJ Boys - Donaldson Pte James 961 4th LD

[liverpool annie]

Now here is an interesting site !! 

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?keyword=+Crimean+War&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

I plugged in Crimean War .... and got 30 pages of images ... a lot of them are Russian soldiers from the war .... we need Mike to give us some pointers as to who they are .... some names I recognise .... but did they ALL fight in the war .... were some at Balaklava ??

And on the same site .... look at this ..... very cool I think !!  ..... in fact I think they're wonderful !! 

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=745924&word=