About Edwin Hughes

Edwin Hughes (12 December 1830 – 18 May 1927), nicknamed "Balaclava Ned", was a British Army soldier and the last survivor of the famous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War of 1854–56.

Hughes was born in Wrexham, Wales on 12 December 1830, one of nine children to William (a tin-plate worker) and Mary (née Jones) Hughes. He was baptised at St Giles' Church, Wrexham on 5 January 1831. Hughes became a shoemaker until he joined the 13th Light Dragoons, part of the Light Brigade, at Liverpool on 1 November 1852. He joined his regiment at Hounslow as 1506 Private Hughes, and in 1854 he sailed with them from Portsmouth to the Crimea.