A man with "courage but not much grasp".

There are many places across Australia named after the man responsible for what is regarded as one of the  worst blunders  in British military history: FitzRoy James Henry Somerset, First Baron Raglan.

Lord Raglan, who was Commander-in-Chief of the British Military during the Crimean War of 1854, led approximately 278 British soldiers to their deaths in the Charge of the Light Brigade.

During the Charge of the Light Brigade, British forces were ordered to attack Russian soldiers who were already heavily defended.

Lieutenant Colonel Neil C. Smith, an expert in military history at Mostly Unsung Military History Research & Publications in Melbourne, said that Raglan’s British troops “charged into the open mouth of the guns, which really isn’t a smart idea at all.”

Like many British commanders of the day, Raglan was quite distant and aloof about what was going, Smith said.

Raglan “had courage but not much grasp on what was happening on the ground and what should happen on the ground,” Smith said.

Following a breakdown in communication with another commander, Raglan, who suffered from  anxiety  during the war, hastily made a new command for his troops to advance towards Russian forces.

Smith, who has over 24 years of experience in the Australian Army, said that Raglan was a commander who didn’t have much military intelligence, so he didn’t know what his troops would do when they got to the Russian guns.

Lords, who were commissioned to high military ranks but didn’t have to go through much training, made poor military decisions, according to Smith.

Lord Raglan, he said, was “the epitome of the British landed gentry” who reached this type of leadership level.

Despite his fearlessness, Raglan paid scant attention to some important aspects of campaigning, such as what the infantry was doing, Smith said.

Nor, according to Smith, did he have much of a grasp on what the British or Russian side were doing in the Crimean War.

The disastrous attack was made famous by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s  poem  of the same name, in which he expresses the dismay and confusion felt by British soldiers upon being ordered to undertake the attack.

There are three towns named after Raglan in Australia, in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

In Sydney, there is a hotel named the Lord Raglan Hotel. In South Melbourne, there is Raglan Street.

While there are many places named after Raglan in Australia, his name appears on signs throughout other parts of the world too.

In the United Kingdom, there are at least  eight  pubs named after the British commander and general.

In New Zealand, an island town  adopted  his name three years after his death.

Raglan did not die with other British troops during the Charge of the Light Brigade. He died a year later following a period of illness with dysentery and depression.

The widespread use of Raglan’s name across Australia is indicative of the country’s relationship with the Crimean War. In St Kilda alone, for example, there are  many  streets and roads named after people and events of the Crimean War. One street is simply named ‘Crimea Street.’

While some street names are named after historical figures with generally honourable reputations, such as Nightingale Street, named after famous nurse Florence Nightingale, many are not.

Raglan’s status as the leader of one of the most disastrous actions in British military history raises questions as to why so many places are named after him.

There do not appear to be any moves to change the names of places named after Raglan in Australia.

In New Zealand, however, some indigenous people have  expressed  a desire to recognise the original Māori name, Whāingaroa, for a town named Raglan.

According to Bathurst District Historical Society archivist Kim Bagot-Hiller, the NSW district’s town has never had any movement to change the name.

While there have been movements to change other town names in the Bathurst region, they have been due to ties to colonial massacres against indigenous people, she said.

Lord Raglan wasn’t involved in such atrocities, so the town hasn’t received as much attention as others, according to Bagot-Hiller.

“If he was involved in the colonisation then there would be a controversy behind the name,” she said.

The main reason that town is named after Lord Raglan, she said, is “the military connection.”

Lord Raglan was a prominent Scottish figure in the British military. NSW Colonial Secretary Edward Deas Thomson, who declared the ‘village’ of Raglan in 1856, was also Scottish and from a distinguished Scottish family.

This was indicative of the general practice during Bathurst’s colonisation period of “mates naming streets after mates,” she said.

Military officers were held in high regard at the time, so colonial figures named places after them.