SOUTHAMPTON'S Carlton Crescent was built during the reign of George IV and is one of the city’s most notable surviving arrays of Regency fronts.

During mid-Victorian times one house was occupied by the Burnaby family, which included Lieut-Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby, said to be the biggest, most handsome, strongest, and certainly one of the most adventurous men in the British Army.

Born in March 1842, he joined the Household Cavalry aged just 16, where Burnaby quickly built for himself a reputation as a soldier and traveller and one local history book recounts he “attracted great attention” when, in his uniform, he marched through Southampton at the head of a military procession.

One description of him says: “Burnaby was physically tall, strong and barrel-chested, and his prowess became legendary.

“He was an eager traveller during his months of leave and an intrepid pioneer balloonist.

“Temperamentally he was impetuous, pugnacious, independent and adventurous, and frequently found himself censured by his superiors. But, if he was unpopular at the Horse Guards he was daily becoming more popular with the people, by whom he was regarded as a ‘colourful celebrity’, part hero, part fool, and leader of jingoist sentiment.”

Finding no chance for active service, his spirit of adventure sought outlets in balloon ascents and in travels through Spain and Russia.

In the summer of 1874 he went to Spain as correspondent of The Times newspaper to report on an insurrection, but before the end of the war he was transferred to Africa to report on General Charles Gordon, by chance another occasional resident of Southampton’s Carlton Crescent, and his expedition to the Sudan.

Daily Echo: Returning to England in March 1875 he concentrated on plans for a journey on horseback to the Khanate of Khiva, through Russian Asia, now known as Uzbekistan, which had just been closed to travellers.

His accomplishment of this task in the winter of 1875-1876, described in his book, A Ride to Khiva, brought him immediate fame.

His next leave of absence was spent in another adventurous journey on horseback through Asia Minor, an account of which he afterwards published.

Daily Echo:

Burnaby continued with his military career, unsuccessfully stood for Parliament as a Tory in 1880, crossed the Channel on a solo balloon flight two years later, and helped to found the Primrose League, a Conservative group in 1883. Disappointed not to be sent to Egypt in command of his regiment in 1884, Burnaby joined the forces independently and was wounded at the second battle of El Teb.

This did not deter him from a similar course when a fresh expedition started up the Nile as part of the British Desert Column on a mission to go to the aid of General Gordon at Khartoum.

But the Sudan was to be the grave of both these Southampton soldiers.

At the Battle of Abu Klea, on January 17, 1885, while Gordon was still alive in Khartoum, Burnaby was killed by an Arab spear during hand-to-hand fighting, so Southampton saw neither of them again.