The Battle of Balaklava 1854 1oz Silver Proof Coin 

Balaklava served as a supply port for Britain and her allies during the Crimean War.  Having resisted a Russian attempt to capture the town, the British Light Brigade was ordered to disrupt their withdrawal.  But the command was misinterpreted, resulting in the charge of 660 men “into the valley of Death”.  The realities of the disaster were brought home with startling impact by The Times newspaper’s battlefield correspondent William Howard Russell, and immortalised in verse by Alfred Tennyson in The Charge of the Light Brigade.