17/04/2026
Good Morning i was only able to spend 2 Days working on his grave which lies under a tree,
The D2 left on stone will continue to work and i will return soon its a 10 hour round trip.
Thanks to his family for access to personal items
Sir GEORGE ORBY WOMBWELL 1832-1913
17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge’s Own)
4th Baronet Wombwell
Of Newburgh Priory,
Laid to rest aged 80
St Michael’s Church yard
Coxwold, Yorkshire
“A dreadful day for the Light Brigade.”
Compiled from various sources
By Hilary Challis
George Wombwell who died in 1913, was the longest surviving officer who took part in the famous “Charge of the Light Brigade” during the Crimea War, when 673 men, five British cavalry regiments, made a suicidal charge in two lines down a ‘valley of death’ against a battery of Russian guns.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!’ he said;
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred
When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made,
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.
[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]
George Wombell joined the Lancers in 1852, aged 20. Two years later he received orders for active service in the Crimea as aide-de-camp (ADC) to the appalling, pampered aristocrat Lord James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, commander of the Light Brigade, whose behaviour and quarrels with other officers had already made him a hate figure in the British press.
The Lancers were part of an Anglo-French expeditionary forces to help Turkey who had been invaded by Russia. On October 25th, 1854 – by now the height of the Crimean War - the Russians were advancing towards the British supply harbour at Balaclava on the Black Sea, now in southern Ukraine.
“Victorian Web” writer Stephen Luscombe explains: “This famous charge (of the Light Brigade) only took place as a result of misinterpreted orders issued by the Command in Chief, General Lord Raglan, to General Lord Lucan, Commander of the Cavalry Division. Lucan ordered Cardigan to lead a force against a line of Russian guns which were sighted at the far end of a long valley. With the 17th as left forward Regiment the advance began. Those watching expected the Brigade to wheel and attack the intended target, but to their amazement the advance continued at the trot and in perfect formation towards the Russian guns.”
Wombwell was at Lord Cardigan’s side during the charge, and had almost reached the enemy guns when his horse was shot from under him. Dazed and on foot, in the middle of the carnage, he was briefly taken prisoner, his sword and pistols taken by some Russian Lancers. He managed to escape, catch a loose horse and, hotly pursued by Russians, ride back to the British lines. He joined the second line of the Light Brigade as it came crashing into the enemy guns. However, by now his horse was exhausted and refused to move further.
Cossacks came riding towards him with sabres drawn, ordering him to throw down his weapons. Dragged roughly from his mount and being marched towards the Russian lines, he heard Lord Cardigan shouting, “Catch a horse you young fool, and come with us!”, and he managed to escape and get back to the British lines.
That night he wrote a letter home which began, “This has been a dreadful day for the Light Brigade.”
Only 195 men and horses were still fit for duty, the rest were killed or horribly wounded. 475 horses were killed. An awful and costly mistake, nonetheless it achieved its objective to smash through the Russian guns and demoralise their cavalry.
The regiment won three Victoria Crosses this day: Troop Sergeant John Berryman VC 1825-1896, QMS (Quartermaster Sergeant) John Farrell VC 1826-1865, and Sgt-Major Charles Wooden VC 1829-1876 buried at St James, Dover, whose grave Steve has restored. Others who took part include (later Medal of Honour recipient) William Russell Parnell [see www.victoriacrossonline.co.uk for more], and 17th Lancers Trumpeter MARTIN LANFREID – whose Hove, Sussex, grave Steve has also renovated – who sounded the charge for the Light Brigade. [See photos captions to hear Lanfreid’s 1890 recording of the charge!]
Wombwell survived and lived a long and full life. In 1855, he succeeded his father as 4th Baronet Wombwell. In 1861 he was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire, and on September 3 that year he married Lady Julia Child-Villiers, a daughter of the 6th Earl of Jersey.
They had five children. Sadly, both their sons both predeceased Wombwell: firstly, son George, died aged 24 in 1889, while serving with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in India, and then Stephen aged 34, died of fever in 1901 while serving with the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa during the Boer War.
Sir George died on October 16, 1913, and was buried in the family plot in the church yard. His title and 12,000-acre estate passed to his brother Henry.
