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Charley Bates' mother is dead and his father is usually away looking for work. His aunt and uncle do not really have room for him with his young cousins so Charley sleeps in the stable with Sam, an old dray horse. He gets by as best he can; for example on market day he will crawl into the horses' corrals, collect the dung, mix it with straw and sell it for manure.
Then one day he hears the sound of fife and drum and he sees the scarlet uniforms of a group of soldiers. The soldiers are recruiting and Charley joins up. He is now a drummer boy.
At first Charley likes the Army. He has plenty to eat and he enjoys strutting about in his fine uniform and new boots. He has a natural sense of rythym and he soon learns to beat his drum. Even more important, he now feels that he belongs somewhere at last. He now has a family.
Charley's regiment marchse to Portsmouth where they embark on a ship bound for the Crimea. Charley sees Gibralter and is fascinated by the spires and minarets of Constantinople. Then they spend some time in a pretty little village known as Varna and it is there that Charley begins to find out what war is really about because cholera breaks out in the Army. They embark again for the Crimea and Charley finds out, for the first time, what he has really let himself in for.
When they disembark they cannot find the tents and have to sleep in the open in the rain. The outbreak of cholera becomes an epidemic and Charley finds out that one of the duties of a bandsman is to help to carry the bodies to the graves. No one had told him that when he enlisted. Then later he finds out that he is also a medical orderly and he is present on the battlefield at the Battle of Balaclava giving water to wounded soldiers.
Charley's best friend is killed. He is sickened by the carnage and futility of the war and decides that he wants to leave the Army and go home but he is told that this is impossible.
"Ah, as to that, Bates, you 'aven't a choice because they've got you, you see. There's no resigning from this man's army -- not unless you're an orficer -- which you ain't. And there's an end to it."
But Charley knows he can resign because he has a secret. The close kept secret is revealed. Charley leaves the Army and begins a new life.
This book gives a touching picture of how young boys were tricked into joining the army by a show of pomp and pageantry while, all the time the harsh reality was being hidden from them. The living conditions, futility and slaughter of the Crimea are ruthlessly brought home to the reader.
But the crux of the whole story is Charley's secret -- and we are only told what this is in the third last chapter. For me this secret is the most interesting thing in the book. One reason why this book held my attention the way it did was because I had read the last chapters quickly before reading the book right through. I do not think I would have found the book nearly so interesting if I had not known this right from the start.
Garry Kilworth has done a lot of research and has unearthed a little known, but fascinating aspect of English history. I would have liked to have seen this elaborated and gone into in more detail rather than being used to supply a surprise ending.
An engrossing story and realistic picture of the Crimean War but I still think that Charley's secret should have been revealed earlier.
10+