Captain Jack; or, One of the Light Brigade

“There, my reader, is something more noble in the conduct of these boy artillery officers, than there is to be found in the trashy rubbish about boy highwaymen, pirates, and other rascals of the stamp, whose impossible doings, I am grieved to write, has been too long the class of literature placed in the hands of the intelligent youth of England.” -- George Emmett, from Captain Jack; or, One of the Light Brigade.

1868*Captain Jack; or, One of the Light Brigade* First of the Shot and Shell series by George Emmett. “Captain Jack; or, One of the Light Brigade” appeared in the Young Englishman's Journal, 1868, and sold in 21 16 page penny numbers. The artwork is by Harry Maguire and another artist, possible William Reynolds.

Shot and Shell Series >

“Shaw, the Lifeguardsman,” Young Englishman's Journal, 1868-69, (Waterloo)

“The King's Hussars,” Young Englishman's Journal, 1869, (Lucknow)

“For Valour; or, How I Won the Victoria Cross,” The Young Briton, 1869-70, (Afghanistan)

“Death or Glory; or, the Uhlans of England,” Sons of Britannia, 1870 (Crimean War)

“Karl, the Uhlan; or, the Cast of the Die,” The Young Briton, 1871 (Franco-German War)

George Emmett claimed to have been on the scene as a cavalry officer at the Charge of the Light Brigade. It may be true, his name does not appear on the survivor's lists, but he may have been in the army as he was about twenty years old at the time.

Captain Jack is a magnificent boys adventure and comparing his details with a personal narrative of the Crimean War, “The Life of James O’Malley,” I find that his account tallies completely with O'Malley's.

O’Malley wrote his book in 1893 in Montreal and his account of everything from supply lists to the Dublin embarkation point are very close to that of George Emmett’s book which was written in the seventies.























See also Lives of the Light Brigade HERE