Lieutenant-Colonel Lacy Yea In our Crimean War primer article (WI295) we presented a painting guide for British war hero Lacy Yea, and here you will find background information and more photos of this decorated stiff upper-lipped general, courtesy of Osprey Publishing. In our Crimean War primer article we presented a painting guide for British war hero Lacy Yea, and here you will find background information and more photos of this decorated stiff upper-lipped general. Lieutenant-Colonel Lacy Walter Yea commanded HM 7th Royal Fusiliers in the 1st Brigade of Lieutenant-General Sir George Brown's Light Division - a formation thought to contain some of the best-trained battalions in the Army, although its commander had seen no action since 1814. The eldest son of a Somerset baronet and educated at Eton, Lacy Yea was aged 46 in 1854 and had been commanding the 7th for four years. Although a keen hunting man, his overriding preoccupation was his 'cherished regiment', as Kinglake called it. In peacetime, as a strict disciplinarian, he had been somewhat feared. In the Crimea his Fusiliers soon realised that, in action, he was a fearless, strong-willed and most capable leader - 'the bravest of the brave', as Sergeant Gowing described him - and out of it, he would do all in his power to safeguard their welfare, particularly in the dreadful first winter.

At the Alma, on the extreme right of the Light Division's assault, he and his Fusiliers held their ground, alone and unsupported, against a superior Russian column's counter-attack, first protecting the Light Division's right flank as it was forced to retire, then guarding the 2nd Division's left as it advanced to support the Fusiliers. The 7th were only partially committed at Inkerman. After preserving his regiment in better order than many during the winter, Yea was promoted to command the 1st Brigade of the Light Division in May1855. In the ill-fated attack on the Redan on 18 June he led, from the front, the right-hand column against a decimating fire and was killed, sword in hand, at the Russian abattis. He was much mourned in the Crimean army and particularly by his Fusiliers.