Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to coincide with the OMRS Convention

A fine Light Brigade pair to Lance-Corporal W. H. ‘Tom’ Spring, 11th Hussars, wounded and taken prisoner in the Charge

Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Sebastopol, Balaklava, Alma (Lce.-Crpl. W. H. Spring, 11th Hussars) officially impressed naming, clasps fitted in order listed; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, unnamed, contained in an old case together with an original newspaper portrait, some nicks and surface bruises, otherwise very fine (2) £4000-5000

Ex Mackenzie (1914) and Needes Collections.

William Henry Pilkington was born in London in 1828. He enlisted into the Lincolnshire Regiment on 21 November 1853, in the name of Spring, by which name he was known for the rest of his life and to his regimental comrades as ‘Tom’ Spring. He transferred to the 17th Lancers and then to the 11th Hussars in December 1853. Spring rode in the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, was wounded (some accounts say he received no less than 11 wounds) and taken prisoner. Private Pennington of the 11th Hussars later described the fate that befell Tom Spring on the 25th October 1854:

‘He fell with his horse after passing through the battery; and was unable to extricate his foot from one of his sturrup-irons, which was overpressed by his horse’s dead body. He explained at this time that his sword was discoloured with blood, and that this sight may have kindled the cruel ire of his assailant. But a Russian officer (Tom thought of high rank) descrying him in the plight I have shewn, in the most dastardly manner fired every chamber of his revolver at the prostrate and helpless Hussar. It was only a month or two ago Tom showed me the deep indentation from these bullets directed at his breast; any one of which would doubtless have proved fatal, but for the resistance offered by the woollen padding of his hussar jacket.’

In a statement made some years later, Spring recalled: ‘I rode in the centre of the 2nd Squadron front rank. When halted, after passing the guns, I heard Colonel Douglas call out, “What are we to do now Lord Paget?,” he replied, “Where is Lord Cardigan?” I did not see Lord Paget either then or at any subsequent period. We pursued the Russian cavalry to the bottom of the valley. When returning after passing the lancers my horse was killed and I was made prisoner. Colonel Douglas was the only officer we received any order from, he alone commanded us.’

Spring remained a prisoner of the Russians for twelve months, undergoing even worse privations than before, until he was exchanged in October 1855 for 20 Russians, that being the current rate of exchange. He was discharged from the army on 16 January 1863.

Tom Spring became an active Light Brigade veteran and, in later years received substantial financial aid from the T. H. Roberts Survivors Relief Fund. He joined the Balaklava Commemoration Society in 1879 and signed the Loyal Address to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee in June 1887. He appears in many photographs of Light Brigade Veterans, including the Diamond Jubilee Reunion photograph of 1897, and attended the Annual Reunion Dinner in 1890, 1894, 1897, 1899, 1906, 1909, 1910 and 1911. He was one of four survivors on parade in Fleet Street for the Coronation of King George V in June 1911. Tom Spring died at Camberwell, London, on 20 August 1912, and is buried in Streatham Cemetery in the same grave as another survivor, Sergeant William Jones of the 4th Light Dragoons. A monument to both men was erected by the Balaklava Memorial Fund.