£ 47k Light Brigade medals

THE medals of a fearless officer at the Charge of the Light Brigade have sold for over £ 47,000.

At the Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1854, Major General John Douglas led 143 men against Russian guns but then got cut off as lancers blocked their rear.

So Maj Gen Douglas told his outnumbered troops to retreat but to “give it another charge” as they took on their mounted enemy.

He said they got through with few British casualties – and he survived the massacre.

Of the 600 men who charged, 110 were killed and 161 were wounded.

Douglas’s medals were priced at £ 20,000 but a bidding war saw them fetch £ 47,120 at auction, including fees.

Christopher Mellor- Hill, at London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb, said: “This is arguably the finest Light Brigade group of medals to appear at public auction for over a decade.”