The Charge of the Light Brigade and Florence Nightingale

(first part of this story is given in  Sa Maison and Lady Lockwood this is part 2)

After a peaceful decade of living in Malta with her daughter and son, cultivating her lovely garden Lady Lockwood must have felt a genuine relief that the torment and turbulence of her married life was behind her.  Given the court case and widespread publicity within the British papers of her husband’s abuse her garden and home in Sa Maison must have been a solace.  Few, knew of her here and she could live a quiet life in the sunny and friendly Mediterranean island.  The views from her villa and garden are breath taking and the area to this day has a wonderful calm atmosphere.

It must have been horrendous to find that peace shattered by the onset of war in the Crimean.  The British Expeditionary force arrived on route to the Crimea and some of her husband’s ex regiments were included in the battalions posted to Malta.  It seems a strange coincidence that some of the British force should be billeted in her very garden.  For a year and a half Malta was full of soldiers and in order to get to their accommodation they had to gain access through her garden.  One of the soldiers posted at this time was an artist and his paintings ( and some photographs of troops) in Malta show how much the British Expeditionary force dominated the island during this period.

Having arrived in 1843-46 Various accounts suggest that they needed to use the site of her house to position guns to defend the walls.  They wanted to demolish her house and for a year and half Lady Lockwood held out hoping that she would not lose her home.  Having been to the garden and examined the bastions it seems strange to position the guns on this lower bastion when much higher sites on the walls above would have provided greater height and range.  In the end the military had their way and her villa was knocked to the ground.  It originally was a hunting lodge built in the 18^th century and its seems a shame that such a historic building was flattened to provide two gun mountings.  Lady Lockwood left the island and all that remains are the beautiful gardens and two circular slabs on which the guns were mounted.  On the adjacent walls the military have carved their insignia which can just be made out although weather worn.  I know historians have argued that the demolition  of the house was purely a military expediency but one wonders what other factors played a role in their decision.  All the paintings shown above are by a soldier from her husband’s old regiment the rifle brigade.  In the officer’s circles they must have known of her husband, Captain Robert Manners Lockwood and his disgrace in the press which had happened a few years previously.  From one historical account there is this piece which is tantalising.

‘In 1853 British military experts obtained permission to pull down the house to make way for a gun platform... the decision to bring in the Military experts to decide on the dismantling of the house was taken after Lady Lockwood gave the cold shoulder to a high ranking military official’. 

Who knows?  I found it fascinating to see that there are actual photographs of the troops at the Crimean war.  I had thought that this was before cameras were available but no there are these shots of various officers from this time and it makes it all seem so much closer.    

Florence Nightingale and forty of her nurses visited Malta on route to the Crimea and their services were much needed.  In the Crimean War (October 1853 – February 1856) Russia lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia.  At its end there were 350,000–375,000 dead.  

Florence Nightingale 1854

I remember my father would often quote from a famous poem (by Lord Tennyson) about a battle of the Crimea known as the Charge of the Light Brigade.

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.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismayed?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blundered:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

It ends with a section celebrating their bravery

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.

A wonderful poem. It is thought a mistake was made in sending instructions to this brigade and they were sent into direct withering fire.  I find it hard to celebrate anything about war and loss of life.  Certainly, no glory or long lasting good seems to emerge from most conflicts.  Over 20,000 of the British Expeditionary force would die in the Crimean war.

“How is it possible for men to fight from morning until evening, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men: And for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth! Even the animals, when they fight, have an immediate and more reasonable cause for their attacks! How terrible it is that men, who are of the higher kingdom, can descend to slaying and bringing misery to their fellow-beings, for the possession of a tract of land!

The highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth! Land belongs not to one people, but to all people. This earth is not man’s home, but his tomb. It is for their tombs these men are fighting. “ Baha’i Writings

Yesterday, I walked along the front to the gardens of Sa Maison and found the flowers blooming along its outer bastions.  Spring has arrived and Lady Lockwood might have been delighted to see how much of her garden remains.  Perhaps, as Marcus Aurelius said so succintly around 170 AD, 

“What we do now echoes in eternity.”