<P> One research project used a mathematical model to examine how the charge might have turned out if conducted differently . The analysis suggested that a charge toward the redoubt on the Causeway Heights, as Raglan had apparently intended, would have led to even higher British casualties . By contrast, the charge might have succeeded if the Heavy Brigade had accompanied the Light Brigade along the valley, as Lucan had initially directed . </P> <P> According to Norman Dixon, 19th - century accounts of the charge tended to focus on the bravery and glory of the cavalrymen, much more than the military blunders involved, with the perverse effect that it "did much to strengthen those very forms of tradition which put such an incapacitating stranglehold on military endeavor for the next eighty or so years," i.e., until after World War I . </P> <P> The fate of the surviving members of the charge was investigated by Edward James Boys, a military historian, who documented their lives from leaving the army to their deaths . His records are described as being the most definitive project of its kind ever undertaken . Edwin Hughes, who died on 14 May 1927, aged 96, was the last survivor . </P> <P> In October 1875, survivors of the charge met at the Alexandra Palace in London to celebrate its 21st anniversary . The celebrations were fully reported in the Illustrated London News of 30 October 1875, which included the recollections of several of the survivors, including those of Edward Richard Woodham, the Chairman of the Committee that organised the celebration . Tennyson was invited, but could not attend . Lucan, the senior commander surviving, was not present, but attended a separate celebration, held later in the day, with other senior officers at the fashionable Willis's Rooms, St James's Square . Reunion dinners were held for a number of years . </P>

From the charge of the light brigade analysis