John Berryman

John Berryman was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, on 18 July 1825, and died on 27 June 1896, at Woldingham, Surrey, where he is buried in St Agatha's Churchyard.

At the age of 29, he was serving as a Troop Sergeant-Major in the17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own) during the Crimean War.

On 25 October 1854, at Balaclava, during the Charge of the Light Brigade, after his horse had been shot under him, he stopped on the field with a wounded officer, amidst a storm of shot and shell. Two sergeants, J Farrell and J Malone, went to help him, and between them they carried the wounded officer out of range of the guns.

John Berryman retired from the army with the rank of Major, having been awarded the Victoria Cross for his valour during the Charge of the Light Brigade.
He was awarded the medal at the first investiture of the Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria held in Hyde Park, London, on Friday, 26th June 1857, along with 61 other Crimean War veterans

If you have any more information regarding the family of Major John Berryman, please pass it on to his great-great-great-niece, Mrs Bryony Santer.

William Berryman

William Berryman was an English artist who produced over 300 pencil and watercolor studies of the people, flora, landscape, and buildings of the island of Jamaica over a period of 8 years. These were intended for a series of engravings, but he died before carrying this out. However, the drawings were preserved in an album that was recently acquired by the Library of Congress.

Picture: Woman Beating Cassava, Jamaica.