Captain was first to fall in Charge of the Light Brigade
When vandals covered Maidstone’s statue to Captain Nolan with spray paint recently, there were gasps of horror.
Fortunately, Gordon Newton and Ian Acott from The Stone Shop in East Farleigh have been able to restore it to its former glory and the vandalism has at least served to remind the town of its strong link with the Crimean War.
Captain Louis Edward Nolan was based at the Maidstone Cavalry Barracks (now the White Rabbit pub), where he was Regimental Riding Master for the 15th King’s Hussars.
He was a popular figure with fellow officers, who paid to have a stone memorial erected to him in Trinity Church, where he worshipped, after his death during the Charge of the Light Brigade on October 25, 1854.
Nolan, who lived at Lion House in Church Street, was acting as Adjutant to the commander in chief, Lord Raglan, and was tasked with carrying a message to Lord Cardigan, ordering an advance to prevent the Russians removing captured guns from overrun Turkish positions.
Cardigan misunderstood the order and led his 600 cavalrymen into a different valley, one which was protected by active batteries of Russian artillery on three sides.
Nolan, realising the blunder, had spurred his way to the front of the Light Brigade in an attempt to stop their charge, only to become the first man to fall as the Russians opened fire.
Nolan was one of 21,000 British soldiers who died in the three-year conflict. But the Russians were eventually beaten by the allied army of Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia. The Russians lost 141,000 troops and were forced to sue for peace in March 1856.
One of the Russian cannons was brought back to Maidstone to celebrate the victory and was presented to the town in 1858 by the Secretary of War, Lord Panmure. It can be seen in the High Street.