what’s in a name

CARDIGAN

s a designer of comfortable knitwear, James Brudenell, the seventh Earl of Cardigan, showed outstanding promise. As a military strategist, not so much. In 1854, during the Crimean War’s Battle of Balaclava, Lord Cardigan glanced at a bristling line of well-defended Russian artillery; gestured heroically to his cavalry, indicating that they would attempt to seize it; then galloped headlong towards the cannons on his horse, Ronald. The men (and probably Ronald) were sceptical, but charged with him, anyway. The moment became known as the Charge of the Light Brigade, immortalised by the British poet Alfred Tennyson. Although most of Cardigan’s troops were blown into small pieces, he and Ronald returned to Britain as national heroes