SILENCE fell on Hatherleigh Moor as the bugle which heralded the Charge of the Light Brigade sounded The Last Post in a special ceremony to remember the town's war hero William Morris last Wednesday.
A monument to Hatherleigh's famous son who led the 17th Lancers in the 1854 Charge was re-dedicated on the 146th anniversary of the Battle of Balaclava.
Hatherleigh Silver Band member Jim Reynolds was 'honoured' to be chosen to play the bugle, normally kept at the regiment's museum at Belvoir Castle in Leicester, which gave an added poignancy to the proceedings.
'Considering its age and what it has been through it played very well,' said Mr Reynolds, who had been allowed to borrow the bugle the previous night to practice.
Colonel of the regiment, now called the Queen's Royal Lancers, Lt Gen Sir Richard Swinburn, who recalled Morris' military career, spoke of the 'spectacularly brave' soldier who led his men into the ill-fated battle in which British and French troops were outnumbered 14-1 by the Russians.
Despite being severely wounded in the head in the battle and his charger Old Trumpeter shot from under him, Morris remounted a riderless horse to continue the charge but again he fell and lost consciousness when the animal pinned him to the ground.
He was then rescued from the battleground and nursed back to health by Florence Nightingale at Scutari Hospital before returning to his home at Fishleigh House, Hatherleigh. But just four years later he died of sunstroke while serving at Poona in India.
An obelisk to his memory, showing him being carried wounded from battle, was erected on Hatherleigh Moor in 1860. It was restored in 1902 by Sir Robert-White Thompson who added the railings in memory of his brother Lt William Thompson of the 17th Lancers who was killed at Balaclava.
'We are very proud to honour William Morris' memory and are very grateful to Hatherleigh firstly for erecting this memorial and secondly for looking after and cherishing it and keeping it as a memorial to a spectacularly brave soldier,' said Lt Gen Swinburn.
Hatherleigh mayor Dennis Bater, who enlisted the help of local resident Lt Col Michael Whiteley to organise the ceremony, said as a child he had been fascinated by the image of this man being carried off the battlefield as he passed the memorial but was not taught the significance of it until he attended school.
'I hope this ceremony has renewed the memory of William Morris in the minds of the people of Hatherleigh and I would like the town to develop links with the Queen's Royal Lancers in the future,' he said.
Local historian Brian Able said the affection and esteem in which the soldier was held locally was borne out by the fact, that within six weeks of his death, a public meeting was called by the Portreeve of Hatherleigh James Hooper to 'adopt measures for the erection in his native parish of some memorial of his heroic valour.'
'It was first thought that a memorial in the church would be appropriate and it was proposed to raise about £20 for this purpose, however, the response was such that over £400 was raised,' he said.
A memorial of this kind today would cost in the region of £100,000.