A small but precious piece of folded blotting paper has joined the stock of 150m documents and books held by the British Library.
Kept in a black-edged envelope of mourning, it holds a few pressed wild flowers, picked nearly 150 years ago on the battlefield of Balaclava by a relative of one of the gallant horsemen who died in the Charge of the Light Brigade.
The seeds of the flowers preserved in memory of Captain Howard Goad are intact, as is the violet of their petals.
His name, and the manner of his death, were revealed by the library yesterday when it announced it had found and bought a second document authenticating the episode.
Captain Goad was in the 13th Light Dragoons, one of the regiments slaughtered in one of the most notorious blunders in the British army's history.
On October 25 1854, as Britain, France, and Turkey waged war on Russia in the Crimea, 600 cavalrymen were ordered to charge half a mile down a narrow valley against strong gun positions defended by 3,000 Russian troops. "We were half down before we reached the guns but the men ... never wavered an inch, grape [shot] and shells cutting them to pieces," wrote Captain Soame Jenyns, a fellow-officer who survived, in a letter to Goad's brother, Charles.
"The last I saw of Howard was galloping about 100 yds from the guns. From all I can learn, he was seen wounded on the ground with his revolver in his hand ... Poor Howard fell in about the most daring charge ever seen. The Light Brigade are half gone."
Because of its importance, Captain Jenyns' letter was bequeathed to the library by a collector. While studying it, Christopher Wright, library curator of modern historical papers, spotted another letter for sale in a catalogue.
By "amazing coincidence", this was a second letter to Charles Goad, from another of his brothers. He was also a soldier, but had not taken part in the charge because he had been injured earlier.
The library was able to buy the letter for £3,000. The two letters together, with the flowers, will form a cameo part of its exhibits on the theme of war.
