A Guardsman in the Crimea

Book excerpt: The Brigade of Guards was the elite force of the British Army in the Crimea. William Scarlett, a captain in the Scots Fusilier Guard and one of the most active junior officers in the regiment, fought throughout the entire campaign. After the Allied landing at Kalamita Bay, Scarlett rallied his regiment at a critical moment during the battle of the Alma, supported by his company sergeant, who was awarded the VC. William Scarlett’s life may well have been saved after the battle of Balaklava by becoming an aide de camp to his uncle, General James Scarlett, the commander of the Heavy Brigade. This meant that he did not fight at Inkerman, which took a heavy toll on the officers of the Guards Brigade. Returning to the trenches early in 1855, William Scarlett was involved in all the phases of the siege of Sebastopol until its fall in September 1855. The survival of 139 previously unpublished letters record Scarlett’s deeds and thoughts. Written to nineteen different correspondents, and deliberately intended by him to form a personal account of his rôle in the war, his letters provide a forceful commentary on the successes and failures of the British army in the East. His life before and after the war is well recorded. Becoming the third Lord Abinger in 1861, Scarlett was the second English peer to marry an American. He built a castle in Scotland, where Queen Victoria stayed in 1873, and two of his daughters became notable suffragettes.