The Crimean War (1853-56) is mostly remembered for three things: the Charge of the Light Brigade, mismanagement in the British army and Florence Nightingale. The war was fought between Russia and the allied powers of Britain, France and Turkey. It began because of British and French distrust of Russia's ambitions in the Balkans.

The battle at Balaclava (which included the Charge of the Light Brigade) was one example of mismanagement and there was a public outcry over the conditions the soldiers faced in the military hospitals. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris in 1856. The scandal surrounding British losses through disease in the Military Hospitals led to a Royal Commission into Military Hospitals.