Feasting
in Edinburgh
Coffey
would by now have been reunited with his wife. And so Margaret would
also have had the opportunity to enjoy the great welcome
given to the
officers and men at the banquet held in honour of those who had fought
in the
Crimea by the citizens of Edinburgh.
On the last day of October 1856,
the 34th
left the Castle at 4.15pm to march down to the Grassmarket where the
new Corn
Exchange stood (it was demolished in 1965). The Daily Scotsman
recorded
how the ‘route was filled with spectators, who loudly cheered as they
passed’.
Of the interior of the Corn Exchange, the Courant wrote:
The decorations were of an
unusually brilliant and
magnificent
character ... The hall when filled presented a most brilliant array.
The
ladies’ mantles in scarlet and blue vied with the uniforms of the
gallant
guests occupying the body of the hall, while, with the profuse and
gorgeous
decorations of the hall, a scene of the most striking, brilliant, and
magnificent description was presented.
Tables for the guests,
military and
civilian, stretched down from the table at which the Lord Provost of
the city
presided. The wives of soldiers sat at tables set up on special
galleries at
the north end of the hall. The whole company was well over a thousand.
They
feasted on beef, mutton, veal and chicken pies, puddings, pastries,
cake, fruit
and biscuits. Each guest was provided with a bottle of pale ale and a
pint of
wine. The Courant noted: ‘The viands were all of excellent and
substantial character, while the quality of the wines was such as fully
to
maintain the high character of the purveyors.’
After dinner, a trumpet was
sounded,
toasts were drunk, the national anthem sung, speeches were given and
returned,
and music specially composed for the occasion performed. The Lord
Provost
spoke, among other things, of the
devoted heroism of the 34th
Regiment, whose deeds of
daring
reflect lustre on their regiment and their country. The advanced post
occupied
by them was one of peculiar danger, and was nobly defended. Their
heroism and
valour were conspicuous in the trenches, and especially while engaged
in
attacking and possessing themselves of the rifle-pits and quarries over
against
Sebastopol, and tenaciously retaining them, notwithstanding the most
desperate
attempts of the foe to regain them. Once within our grasp they were
firmly
held, and no effort of the foe prevailed to make them again his own...
The
heroism and endurance of the soldiers have been such as to make the
campaign
peculiarly a soldier’s struggle. Sebastopol will hand down to future
ages with
imperishable lustre the indomitable perseverance which characterised
the long
sustained and arduous efforts of men who voluntarily betook themselves
to the
profession of arms. They were opposed by obstacles which at one time
seemed so
great as to require power more than human to overcome them. The natural
strength of the position chosen by our gigantic foe as the stronghold
of his
power, and the scientific skill displayed by him in its defence,
together with
his vast resources, rendered success a work of almost superhuman
exertion.
There are officers and soldiers now present who distinguished
themselves during
the campaign whose names I wish I could mention, but I forbear.
The Edinburgh News
mentioned
some names, however, including Coffey’s: ‘Corporal Coffey wears his
medal for
saving some dozen of his comrades by seizing a live shell and casting
it out
before bursting, which it did almost in the throwing out.’ The ‘medal’
referred
to and worn at the banquet by Coffey would have been the DCM.