LONDON.- A Crimea Medal awarded to George Flowers of the 17th Lancers, who was killed in the Charge of the Light Brigade of 1854 will be offered by Bonhams in the Coins, Medals and Banknotes sale at Knightsbridge on December 15th. The medal is estimated to sell for £8,000 – 10,000.

The Charge of the Light Brigade, made famous by Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, was a doomed charge by the light cavalry against the Russian artillery, in the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. It became a symbol of both heroic failure and devotion to duty. Nearly half the men in the charge, including George Flowers, were killed or wounded.

The Crimean War was the first time that reporters and photographers captured the events in a way that had never happened before. This brought the story of the Charge of the Light Brigade to the public’s attention only three weeks after it had happened and eyewitness accounts of the charge in the British media created enormous public interest.

Being sold alongside the medal is a photograph believed to have been taken in 1904, showing the son of George Flowers and his family commemorating his father.