Charles Partington’s gravestone. Source: SGCT.
Charles Partington’s monument once carried an inscription on a brass plate explaining that ‘he charged with General Scarlett’s Brigade at Balaclava, twice cutting through the Russians, on October 25th, 1854, and was the same day severely wounded while covering the retirement from the Charge of the Light Brigade’. He had run away from school to enlist with the 1st Royal Dragoons and must still have been a teenager at the time of the Crimean War (1854-1856). After discharge he married and settled in Sheffield where he was employed by a timber merchant’s firm. He was also honorary secretary to the Crimean and Indian Mutiny Association and ‘gave freely…of his ability and his time…to assist old soldiers in distressed circumstances.’ (Sheffield Independent 18th March 1902.)
Ironically, having survived great danger in his youth, Charles was killed, as the inscription acidly explained, ‘through his horse falling twice upon badly kept slippery granite on Attercliffe Road’. He was thrown from his trap and died in the Royal Hospital following severe head injuries. He was buried with full military honours, the procession led by a detachment of mounted police, followed by a 12-man firing party, and a band playing the funeral march. The coffin with his helmet and medals resting on top, was carried on a gun carriage drawn by six horses. Hundreds of people lined the streets to watch. He is buried in plot B1 18 in the Anglican area. The waist high monument, paid for by the Veterans Association, still exists, but the carved stone helmet carved on top, the sabre, rifle and brass inscription plaque are all gone.
You can read more about people whose lives were cut short through accident and violence in the Sheffield General Cemetery publication Murder and Mishap – Sudden Death in Victorian Sheffield and follow the self-guided trail Murder and Mishap.