Page 138: The Balaclava Ball

The famous Charge of the Light Brigade occurred on the 25th of October, 1854 during the battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. In it, a British brigade of light cavalry charged suicidally across the "valley of death" into the mouth of Russian cannons. Of the more than 600 horsemen who went into the charge, 278 became casualties.

The Charge has become both a touchstone for more romantic times ("gallantry and dash") and a symbol of the futility of much warfare (the Charge achieved nothing in a war that itself achieved nothing). Indeed, the Charge of the Light Brigade is well-known, but its context (or even what it was) is practically lost. In its way, it has become a fossil disconnected from its own time. Some know it as a poem (Tennyson), or a piece of music (the score from the 1936 film is well known), or a sign of futility, but few know it as a feature of the Crimean War.

About 60 years ago, the descendants of the five cavalry regiments that took part in the charge held a fancy dress party to celebrate the Charge and the memories of those that fell. It was held at what is now known as the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel and was called the "Balaclava Ball".

For those in the know, her attendance at the ball is an early clue that not all is as it may seem with Rashiel.