The people of the Crimean War

There were many key figures during the Crimean War:

Lord Raglan (30th September 1788 - 29th June 1855) was the commander-in-chief of the British Forces during the Crimean War. Raglan was most known for ordering the British Light Brigade to take back guns that the Russians had seized. The orders involved the British cavalry racing uphill to face Russian cannons. This order contradicted all military wisdom especially considering that Raglan could see the battlefield and the Russian guns but still went through with the orders. After Balaclava, Raglan fought hard through official correspondence to pin the blame on Lucan however with events in the Crimea going badly, the pressure mounted on Raglan. He was heavily criticized in parliament and as leader of the military, the buck stopped with him. With time, Raglan has become the epitome of incompetence due to his lack of leadership qualities and his poor military strategies. His army didn't rate him and the politicians wanted him gone but in the aristocracy society of the time, he was never sacked.

Lord Aberdeen (28th January 1784 - 14th December 1860) served as Prime Minister of Britain from 1852 to 1855. Despite trying to avoid it, he took Britain into the Crimean War. The war forced Lord Aberdeen to resign from his post. Pressure from The Times newspaper and outrage from the middle classes at the incompetence the Conservative Party aristocrats managing the commissariat led to Aberdeen tendering his resignation to Queen Victoria. The Light Brigade, the Russian winter and the incompetence of the military led by Lord Raglan were also highly significant factors. The most powerful man in Britain and arguably the world at the time, was brought down by the war in the Crimea.  

Florence Nightingale (12th May 1820 - 13th August 1910) led a team of 38 nurses to the Crimea to help improve standard of care and ease suffering of the regular troops. She addressed the issues of sanitation and ventilation by washing out the sewers and cleaning the ventilation systems that were the breeding ground of disease. With standards improving, the death rate of injured or sick soldiers dropped from 42.2% to 2%. Nightingale was one of the heroines from the war and she was considered the remedy to the bungling incompetence of the leadership of the country. On arrival home, Queen Victoria invited her to set up a Royal Commission to address the poor medical standards in the Army. The findings of the commission recommended an Army Medical School and more use of statistics when analysing the success of health care. She also inspired middle and upper women to pursue careers at a time when women were not expected to work.

Mary Seacole (1805 - 14th May 1881) ,after numerous rejections from the government, decided to pay her own way to the Crimea to help with the soldiers. At Crimea, Seacole was known for her heroism as she tended to soldiers on the battlefield as the fighting went on around her. She constructed a boarding house from the scrap materials left around by the army that treated the sick and wounded. Seacole sold alcohol to the soldiers and was often frowned upon by Nightingale who referred to her boarding house as a 'broffle'. Nonetheless, her popularity in the Crimea and at home went through the roof. Her self-sacrifice and determination to make a difference ensured she was known as a heroine throughout the empire. However upon her return to Britain, she lived in poverty due to the social hierarchy that still existed within Britain.

William Howard Russell (28th March 1820 - 11th February 1907) was the first ever war correspondent, sending his dispatches from the front line by telegram. He wrote for The Times newspaper which was increasingly read by the growing middle classes during the war. The Times was openly critical of the way the war was being managed by the aristocratic political and military leaders. Russell spent December 1854 away from the harsh Russian winter, living in Constantinople. John Delane (11th October 1817 - 22nd November 1879) was the editor of The Times during the Crimean War and helped in determining public opinion. Russells reporting and Delanes critical editorial stance inspired Tennyson to write poetry, Nightingale to head out to the Crimea and Lord Aberdeen to resign.

Roger Fenton (28th Match 1819 - 8th August 1869) was the first war photographer and was paid by the commercial company 'Thomas Agnew & Sons' to go to the Crimea and produce an album of photographs that could be sold and exhibited in museums. He was asked to produce an album that showed the landscapes of the Crimea rather than an accurate picture of war with the death, destruction and inhumane conditions that the troops served in. His camera was big and needed a horse and cart to transport it and couldn't take images of moving objects. He arrived in March 1855 which meant that he missed the most extreme part of the war for the British troops - the Russian winter of 1854 and 1855.