In fact there seems to have been no single, over-riding reason for this unless it was the administrative slackness of the British Army in the mid-19th century. Lord Raglan, the commander-in-chief who gave the ambiguous order during the Russian advance at Balaclava; Airey, the staff officer who wrote it down in a slapdash way; Captain Nolan, the cavalry firebrand who delivered it with such brusque arrogance; Lord Lucan, the stuffy martinet who received it and passed it on to his stupid brother-in-law, Lord Cardigan, to carry out - all were to some extent culpable, but none was wholly so. Contrary to what is often written, more than half the light cavalrymen outlived the charge, though they were never again effective as a fighting force. Incidentally, in view of the perennial argument about their number - 600 or 700? - Mark Adkin supplies (surely?) the final word by computing it at precisely 664 men and horses.