Daniel Dowling, who was born in Carlow, Ireland in 1832, was one of the survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaklava in 1854. He enlisted in the British Army in January 1854 and became one of the cavalrymen of the Light Brigade. Shortly thereafter England, France and Turkey formed an alliance to drive Russia out of the Baltic and Crimea. During the Battle of Balaklava a mix-up in orders resulted in about 670 members of the Light Brigade riding directly into the Russian guns, in what Tennyson in his poem called ‘the valley of Death’.
Having survived the Crimean War, Daniel Dowling later served with the British Army in Africa, India and Australia. He resigned from the British Army in 1865 and moved to America. He died on July 15th 1913 at the age of 81 in Utica, New York. A copy of the poem, ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was found among his possessions.
The Charge of the Light Brigade took place in the year 1854 On This Day
Photo by covilha 