Place VC Won Balaclava, Crimea (Charge of the Light Brigade)
War/Campaign Crimean War
Name Alexander Roberts Dunn No.
VC Issue No. 17 Awards VC
Regiment 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own Regiment of Light Dragoons), F Troop
Later
Now King's Royal Hussars
Rank VC Won Lieutenant
Rank End Of Career Colonel
Place Of Birth Dunstable, York (now Toronto), Ontario, Canada
Place Of Death Senafe, Eritrea
Buried/Location Ashes Military Cemetery, Senafe (2004 possible plans to return body to Canada?), Eritrea
Cremated
Date Buried/Cremated
Headstone Headstone Plot/Grave no.
Gazetted 24 February 1857
VC Presented 26 June 1857 by Queen Victoria at Hyde Park, London, England
Memorials
Headstone Military Cemetery, Senafe, Eritrea (refurbished 2010)
P Named on Regimental Memorial, Duke of Wellington's Regimental Chapel, York Minster, Yorkshire
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: portrait by Chevalier Desanges at Upper Canada College, plaque at Clarence Square, near Spadina Avenue, plaque in park downtown
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: portrait based on Desanges original by Robert S Hyndman at Army HQ Officer's Mess, battlefield chair, sword and scabbard at the Canadian War Musuem
National Army Museum repainted 10 London taxi's during October 2004
By The Way…
First native-born Canadian, the only officer in the Charge of the Light Brigade and only cavalry officer in the entire Crimea campaign to be awarded the VC
First Canadian to command a British regiment and youngest colonel in the British Army
During a hunting expedition he was trying to uncork a brandy flask his shot gun slipped between his legs and both barrels went off, hitting the right side of his chest (33rd Regiments official version of death)
VC Held By
Canadian War Museum, 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (on loan from Upper Canada College, Toronto)
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Having charged with the Light Brigade he returned into the fight to save the life of a sergeant who was surrounded by Russian Dragoons. Moments later he repeated this feat saving the life of a private.
