THE EMPIRE’S SCARLET HEROES
“AN ARMY WAS TO BE SENT TO THE EAST, AND, AS PART OF THAT ARMY, THREE BATTALIONS OF BRITISH GUARDS WERE TO FORM WHAT WOULD BE CALLED THE GUARDS BRIGADE”
On 20 September 1854 James McKechnie, a 28-year-old sergeant of the Scots Fusilier Guards, had just committed an act of valour that would see him become one of the very first recipients of the Victoria Cross. During a moment of dangerous disorder for his battalion at the Battle of the Alma, he took the initiative and rallied his men around the Colours and was wounded in the process. So bitter was the fighting that McKechnie would be just one of 12 Guardsmen to receive the VC during the costly Crimean War.
Earlier that same year, on 10 February, a brigade order was issued in anticipation of war with Russia. An army was to be sent to the east, and, as part of that army, three battalions of British Guards were to form what would be called the Guards Brigade. These included the Third Battalion Grenadier Guards, the First Battalion Coldstream Guards, and the First Battalion Scots Fusilier Guards.
All three battalions, which would number the best part of 1,000 officers and men each, were expected to embark on their transports at Southampton on 18 February, although in the event they would not set sail until later in the month. Their destination was to be the Dardanelles, after briefly disembarking at Malta en route.
During the voyage to the Mediterranean island, Captain Alfred Tipping of the Grenadier Guards, who was not usually prone to seasickness, described his sea journey aboard the transport Manilla as a somewhat rough one: “The Wind blew hard against us, with a heavy sea, of course everyone was now more or less sick … I always find myself nearly the only one on board, who does not suffer, when it is at all rough, but with seeing so many ill all around, I must say I was nearly being upset myself.”
When his battalion disembarked from the transport Orinoco on 5 March, Captain Charles Wilson of the Coldstream Guards was pleased to find Malta was not riddled with disease and sickness as some had feared: “The Lazzaretto,
