AN IMPORTANT & UNIQUE VICTORIAN ENVELOPE.
Sent from The Crimea on August 9th 1854, to his relation General J Houghton. (British Army Post Office back stamp 9 Aug 54 and WATERFORD Back stamp 22 Aug 54)
By:
Lieutenant George Powell Houghton, 11th HUSSARS.
Who Died of Fatal Wounds received during the
CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

Lt HOUGHTON was fatally struck in the forehead by a fragment of shell during the famous charge. He rode back to the lines and some said his was the figure mistaken for Lord Cardigan which gave rise to the stories that he had turned before reaching the Russian guns. Both were riding chestnut horses with white stockings and were both wearing similar uniforms.

AN OFFICER OF 11th HUSSARS.

There was also an uncanny physical similarity between them. Lt Houghton died in Scutari Hospital under the auspice of Florence Nightingale on 22nd November 1854.

Note: A Book of Common Prayer, (pocket sized 1852 edition) and bound in red leather with brass edges and locket with the front cover gold blocked ‘G. P. Houghton, 11th P.A.O. Hussars’, and inscribed in ink inside ‘G. P. Houghton, 11th Hussars’, was sold by DNW on 18th a September 1998 for £250







A TOTALLY SUPERB ITEM OF THE GREATEST MILITARY SIGNIFICANCE.

£595