A WAR veteran has been honoured on the 150th anniversary of one of the British Army's most infamous defeats.

Dennis Stancliffe, of Wakefield Road, Lepton, was awarded a memorial plaque because he fought with the 16th Lancers during the 1930s and 40s.

Soldiers from the regiment, now known as the Queen's Lancers, were among those who rode to their death on the battle fields of Balaclava in 1854 during the Crimean War.

The awards were handed out to veterans at the 150th anniversary dinner of the battle.

The china plaque is inscribed to commemorate the memory of Capt William Morris of the 17th Lancers who led a charge against the Russian guns.

Mr Stancliffe, 87, joined the Lancers when he was 18 and fought in North Africa and Italy during the Second World War.

He said: "I joined up when I was 18 and soon I was involved in the war.

"I am very proud to receive this award and was very pleased to be invited to the dinner that was held in Grantham."

More than 100 guest were invited to the dinner on October 25, exactly 150 years since the Charge of the Light Brigade which is well known by many because of the Lord Tennyson poem.

For the last two years of the war Mr Stancliffe, who has seven great grandchildren, did not return to Huddersfield or see his wife Doreen, now 81.

When he finally did come back Mr Stancliffe found work as a miner at the Shuttle Eye Colliery, in Grange Moor.

"It is very nice to be honoured and remembered alongside other Lancers," added Mr Stancliffe.