A POIGNANT family memorial in a North-East church is the only apparent tribute to one of the Crimean campaign's forgotten victims.

Exactly 150 years ago last Saturday, Teesdale landowner's son Captain Augustus Frederick Cavendish Webb died in the Scutari Military Hospital from wounds inflicted on October 25, 1854, at the battle of Balaclava.

After tracing Capt Webb's story, historian Derek Pattison has called for a memorial to his bravery.

His shin shattered, Capt Webb could have died where he fell without the heroism of a fellow 17th Lancer, a Sergeant Major John Berryman, whose bravery in carrying him from the battlefield was to earn him the highest military honour the Victoria Cross.

Mr Pattison, a retired architect from Frosterley, County Durham, became intrigued by a tribute to Capt Webb erected in the entrance of Barnard Castle Church by his older brother, Frederick William, and tenants on the family estate.

He tracked down the soldier's story through contemporary accounts written by war correspondents and published two years later.

Capt Webb, it emerged, was found amid the carnage of Balaclava, his shin shattered and unable to ride.

Sgt Maj Berryman, recovering his senses after having his second horse shot under him, lifted him from the saddle and began a long trudge up the valley to safety.

Although the captain, nicknamed Peck, was conscious and able to greet a colleague "as if he had been injured on a football field", surgeons later amputated his leg and death followed.

Capt Webb would have had led a privileged life in Teesdale, where his family owned the township of Westwick, near Barnard Castle, passing the estate to Lord Strathmore in 1862.

His older brother was a close friend of explorer David Livingstone and had bought magnificent Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire, in 1860.

Mr Pattison said: "There seems to be little known of Captain Webb or his family. Has this hero from one of our history's memorable battles been forgotten by his local community?

"On the 150th anniversary, can an appropriate memorial be erected in recognition of a young man's ultimate sacrifice on behalf of all of us?"