NAM.1988-02-12-1

Pattern 1821 Heavy Cavalry Officer’s Sword. Made by Thomas Osborn, Birmingham. Carried by Col (later Gen Sir) Edward Cooper Hodge (1810-1894), 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards. The blade is slightly curved, flat backed, fullered and spear pointed, with engraved decoration, including the owner’s initials, a harp, Queen Victoria’s cypher and a motto; steel ‘honeysuckle’ pattern, with the inner edge turned up and the stool turned down, and the pommel is in an unusual French style. Wooden grip covered with fish skin and bound with steel wire. Hodge was first commissioned in the 4th (Royal Irish) Dragoon Guards in 1826. He probably acquired this sword when the 4th Dragoon Guards introduced a regimental variant of the Pattern 1821 Heavy Cavalry Sword with a pronounced and lengthened pommel. As with the Light Cavalry Sword, the Heavy Cavalry type initially had a pipe-back blade which only began to be replaced by the stronger Wilkinson flat-back type in the late 1840s. The new pommel was similar to that of an existing sword of the 2nd Life Guards and seems to have been influenced by French styles. Hodge commanded the 4th Dragoon Guards throughout the Crimean campaign and led it in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava. He also commanded the Heavy Brigade itself briefly in 1855 and 1856.

Balaklava, Battle of, 1854 (Crimean War, Charge of the Heavy Brigade, 1854 (Crimean War 1854-1856)