James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan

Lieutenant-General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan KCB (16 October 1797 – 28 March 1868) was a British Army officer who commanded the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, leading its disastrous charge at the Battle of Balaclava. Throughout his life in politics and his long military career, Cardigan characterised the arrogant and extravagant aristocrat of the period. His progression through the British army was marked by many episodes of extraordinary incompetence, but also by generosity to the men under his command and genuine bravery. As a member of the landed gentry, he had actively and steadfastly opposed any political reform in Britain but, in the last year of his life, he relented and came to acknowledge that such reform would bring benefit to all classes of society.