A British officer adapted an award to honour his heroic mount, writes Will Bennett in London.
As the Light Brigade hurled itself against the Russian artillery in the most famous cavalry charge in British history, casualties among the horses were even higher than among the riders.
Out of almost 700 horses that galloped into a storm of enemy fire at the Battle of Balaklava in 1854, about 500 were killed, forcing many of the surviving soldiers to stumble back to the British lines on foot.
Among the animals that survived the charge and the almost equally terrifying retreat was Drummer Boy, a six-year-old ridden by Lieutenant-Colonel Rodolph de Salis, second-in-command of the 8th Hussars.
De Salis was so impressed by the bravery and stamina of the wounded Drummer Boy that he decided the horse deserved a medal as much as the men who had fought in the heroic but disastrous attack.
He acquired a campaign medal awarded to British troops who served in the Crimea and had the rim engraved with the horse's name and the fact that he had been born in Ireland in 1848. On the reverse is the inscription "Carried Lt Col de Salis 8th Hussars".
This unofficial campaign award will be sold in London this month with an estimate of £300 to £500 ($A720 to $1200), a fraction of the price paid for medals to men who fought with the Light Brigade.
Drummer Boy's survival was miraculous. De Salis, then a major, commanded the right-hand squadron of the 8th Hussars, meaning he was ahead of his men as they rode down what poet Alfred Lord Tennyson called "the valley of death".
Lieutenant Edward Seager recalled: "We advanced at a trot and soon came within the crossfire from both hills, both of cannon and rifles; the fire was tremendous, shells bursting amongst us, cannon balls tearing the earth up. Still on we went, never altering our pace or breaking up in the least, except that our men and horses were gradually knocked over."
During the retreat, the regiment had to run the gauntlet of Russian fire from the hills for a second time. Drummer Boy was wounded. What happened to him afterwards is not known.
His only memorial is a silver medal awarded by a grateful rider who might not have survived without him.
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