Robert Warden

Medals are shown left to right, as per the bullet point list above.

Robert Warden served with the 19th Regiment from 1841 until his retirement in 1868, where he reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment’s 2nd Battalion.

An early piece of archive records him performing in the Regimental Amateur Dramatics Company.

He was wounded leading the 8th (Light) Company at the Battle of Alma from cannister fire; small metal balls closely packed in a cylinder case, from the Russian cannons. He was successfully treated by Regimental doctor, Surgeon Thomas Longmore, and recovered sufficiently to lead the Light Company only six weeks later at Inkerman. Mentioned in Despatches, he was also wounded in the trenches on 24th August and in the assault on the Redan, 8th September 1855.

A Major Foster described Warden as, ‘A Scot, honourable and true as steel, tall and spare, reserved and silent for the most part – one who by the mesmeric influence of his nature drew men to him as steel filings to a magnet.’

Warden was one of only eight individuals from the Regiment to receive the Legion D’Honneur, along with Henry McGee (whose medals are also in the collection). In total, seven hundred and forty-six members of the British armed forces received the Legion D’Honneur during the Crimean War.

Warden died in June 1890, aged 68 years old.