While we honour the 93rd at Balaklava, let’s honour too the Royal Marines and Turkish troops who stood their ground in line beside them. In particular, it is time to repair the reputation of the Turkish troops, who suffered from a bad press at that time to cover bad British generalship. The attitude prevailed for a long time after, until Gallipoli showed the Turks not to be cowards after all. For example, at Balaklava, the true sacrifices made by Turkish troops in defending their gun positions (which in turn led to the misguided Charge of the Light Brigade etc) is only now being pieced together and recognized by forensic historians.