Crimea War Memorial - London

The Crimean War, also known in Russia as the Oriental War (Russian: Восточная война, Vostochnaya Voina) (October 1853 February 1856) was fought between the Russian Empire on one side and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the other. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the conflict took place on the Crimean Peninsula, with additional actions occurring in western Turkey and the Baltic Sea region.The Crimean War is sometimes considered to be the first "modern" conflict and "introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare".

The Crimean War was notorious for military and logistical incompetence by the British army. However, it highlighted the work of women who served as army nurses. War correspondents for newspapers reported the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in the desperate winter that followed and prompted the work of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, and others and led to the introduction of modern nursing methods.

The Crimean War also saw the first tactical use of railways and other modern inventions such as the telegraph. The war also employed modern military tactics, such as trenches and blind artillery fire. The use of the Minié ball for shot, coupled with the rifling of barrels, greatly increased Allied rifle range and damage.The British Army system of sale of commissions came under great scrutiny during the war, especially in connection with the Battle of Balaclava, which saw the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade.

This scrutiny eventually led to the abolition of the sale of commissions.The Crimean War was a contributing factor in the Russian abolition of serfdom in 1861: Alexander II saw the military defeat of the Russian serf army by free troops from Britain and France as proof of the need for emancipation. The Crimean War also led to the eventual realization by the Russian government of its current technological inferiority, namely in its military practices as well as its military weapons.

The Crimean War Memorial is located on Waterloo Place, at the junction of Lower Regent Street and Pall Mall in London, about a quarter of the way from the Duke of York Column toPiccadilly Circus.Originally it was unveiled in 1859, consisting of the statues of three Guards Men, with the female allegorical figure referred to as Honour. It was cast in bronze from the cannons captured at the siege of Sebastopol. The sculptor was John Bell.On the front, by the statues of the Guardsmen are two plaques.

The uppermost states:
"The Guards' Memorial was pulled down in the year of our lord 1914 and was re-erected 30 feet north in order to permit the erection of the Florence Nightingale and Sidney Herbert statues." The Lower one states:
"The foundation stone of the Guards' Memorial was laid in the year of our lord 1861 by Margaret Johanna Bell."'

On the back facade of the monuments, facing the road up to Piccadilly is another plaque, a shield surrounded by foliage and mounted on guns, this reads:
"To the memory of 2152 Officers, Non-Com. Officers and Privates of the BRIGADE OF GUARDS who fell during the war with Russian in 1854-56. Erected by their Comrades."
In 1914 it was pulled down and moved to make room for the statues of Florence Nightingale and Sidney Herbert - Secretary at War at the War Office during the War. It is only then that the allegorical figure is referred to as Victory.

All pictures taken by Trojan Gayle