, 1838–1840 Raglan became commander of the British troops sent to the
Crimea with the temporary rank of full
general on 21 February 1854 and was promoted to the substantive rank of full general on 20 June 1854. While Raglan's primary objective was to defend
Constantinople he was ordered by the
Duke of Newcastle, who was at the time
Secretary of State for War, to
besiege the
Russian port of
Sevastopol "unless it could not be undertaken with a reasonable prospect of success". An Anglo-French force under the joint command of Somerset and General
Jacques St. Arnaud defeated General
Alexander Menshikov's Russian army at the
Battle of the Alma in September 1854. At the
Battle of Balaclava in October 1854, Raglan issued an order to the
Earl of Lucan, his cavalry commander, who in turn ordered the
Earl of Cardigan, a subordinate commander who happened to be Lucan's brother-in-law and who detested him, to lead the fateful
Charge of the Light Brigade leading to some 278 British casualties. Despite an indecisive result at Balaclava the British and French allied army gained a victory at the
Battle of Inkerman in November 1854 and Raglan was promoted to the rank of
field marshal on 5 November 1854. He was also awarded the Ottoman Empire
Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class on 15 May 1855. Raglan was blamed by the press and the government for the sufferings of the British soldiers in the terrible Crimean winter during the
Siege of Sevastopol owing to shortages of food and clothing although this, in part, was the fault of the home authorities who failed to provide adequate logistical support. and his body brought home and interred at
St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton. and then as honorary colonel of the
Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues).
Cefntilla Court,
Llandenny was built as a lasting memorial to Somerset in 1858: an inscription over the porch there reads: A
blue plaque was erected outside Raglan's house at Stanhope Gate in London in 1911. ==Family==