FEW people travelling along Burial Ground Lane en route to the Tovil waste transfer station are aware of the history that they pass.

Just at the top of the road, behind the black iron railings, is the small Anabaptist Burial Ground, now cared for by Tovil Parish Council. Among the many gravestones belonging to prominent local Anabaptists is one to the memorably named Chilley Pine.

Born on June 15, 1820, Pine led an adventurous career as a medical officer with the British Army which saw him travel the world.

He was posted to Bengal, saw action in the China War of 1841 and was transferred from Australia to New Zealand to care for soldiers wounded in the 1845 war with the Maoris.

In 1855, he landed with the 4th Dragoon Guards in the Crimea and was present at the battles of Inkerman and Balaclava, where he achieved some notoriety for his outspokenness.

When Lord Raglan, who was in overall charge of the campaign, toured one of his military hospitals, the commander is said to have asked: “How are you getting on with the sick in your division, Mr Pine?” and received the unexpected response: “Nothing could possibly be worse!”

Pine then went on to the list the lack of proper accommodation, shortage of medicines, inadequate clothing and other deficiencies. A startled Raglan reputedly asked Pine: “Whom do you insinuate the blame rests with, Sir, for these deficiencies?” To which Pine, replied: “Everyone My Lord. All the heads of departments.”

He said: “I have reported all these deficiencies and the injurious consequences arising from each and have sometimes received no answer and in no case any help.”

Within a few months, on March 6, 1855, Pine himself was dead, aged just 45. Like so many of the soldiers in his care, he died not from enemy action but from typhus.

He is actually buried in the military cemetery in Balaclava, but he had asked to be laid to rest in his beloved Tovil and his brother officers paid for the memorial stone to be erected there.

Pine had married Agnes Gibson in 1853. She was the great granddaughter of James Watt, inventor of the steam engine. They had one child, Arthur Chilley Pine.

More can be found about Chilley Pine in The Crimean Doctors by John Shepherd (Liverpool University Press). Chilley Pine’s own medical papers and correspondence are held at the National Army Museum.