Welsh Journals

A Horseman at War John W. H. Greeves An account of Captain the Hon. Godfrey Morgan (later Viscount Tredegar) and his charger Sir Briggs who took part in the Crimean War 1854 to 1855. This account traces the movements of a young cavalry officer and his charger in the Crimean War. Capt. the Hon. Godfrey Morgan and his charger, Sir Briggs both took part in the Crimean campaign which lasted from 1854 to 1855. Sir Briggs was bought in 1851, the same year he won the Hunt Steeple Chase at Cambridge. He was of unknown pedigree and would probably have remained a hunter* had not the Crimean War intervened. Today, the visitor will find the grave of Sir Briggs in the Cedar garden of Tredegar House. A circle of low yew bushes surrounds a large stone obelisk headstone. The inscription on the headstone reads as follows: In Memory of Sir Briggs Favourite charger. He carried his master the Hon. Godfrey Morgan, Captain 17th Lancers boldly and well at the Battle of Alma, in the first line of the Light Cavalry Charge of Balaclava and the Battle of Inkerman, 1854. He died at Tredegar Park February 6th 1874. Age 28 years. It's interesting that the entry in the stud book gives a different date for the horse's death. It reads. Died February 9th 1874 of old age buried in the garden.' It is only with an understanding of the events of the Crimea that one can fully appreciate, how the bond between rider and horse grew in the face of adversity. Early days Godfrey Morgan was educated at Eton College from the Autumn term 1843, to the end of the Lent term in 1848. He was in the Rev. Harry Dupuis' house. He purchased a commission in 1850, at the age of nineteen and became a cornet in the 17th Lancers. *The English thoroughbred hunter as developed from the pure-bred Arab, combining size with speed and stamina, was the type of horse most favoured by the British cavalry in the nineteenth century.