The decision was due less to calculation that public interest would be less with peace imminent, than to yielding finally to constant pressure in Parliament and the Press. This ensured a high public profile for the report, which although fair to the Commissariat pulled no punches in apportioning blame where it was indicated.
The Commissioners' severest criticism was reserved for Lords Lucan and Cardigan, accused of responsibility for the demise of the Cavalry, and Quartermaster-general Lieut General Sir Richard Airey for the collapse of the transport system and the supplies breakdown. Diarist Henry Greville recorded 'as these three officers have since been honoured in many ways...a storm of abuse has been heaped upon them by the Press'
Indeed, all three had been created KCB since their return from the Crimea. Cardigan had rung every ounce of prestige and glory from his Light Brigade Charge, and had been appointed Inspector-General of Cavalry. Lucan in his turn became Colonel of the 8th Hussars. Airey had recently been in the news as a leading member of the British delegation at the Grand Council of War in Paris. Of the three, only Lucan was under a public cloud pre-Tulloch/McNeill. After his repeated demands for a court-martial to examine his conduct at Balaklava had been refused, he could not resist rising to the bait willingly provided by his old enemy Anthony Bacon, (See The Warring Earls) writing long angry letters of rebuttal to the Times, which convinced few, but ensured that the issue remained large in the public gaze.
The Commissioners' Report therefore was food and drink to the Press. Cardigan was a long established favourite of the hacks, slipping seamlessly from villain to hero and now back to villain again - Punch magazine published a mock apology for him. Airey was deemed to have wriggled off the hook the previous year when Raglan had refused to fire him, and this seemingly watertight judgement against him was welcomed by the Press with open arms. Also the public could more easily relate to homely items of clothing than they could to Minie bullets; they seized on the Tulloch/McNeill statistic that although 12,000 greatcoats were received at Balaklava at the beginning of December 1854, 9000 of them were still on the shelves at the end of January. With Lucan, it was a simple matter to further villify a securely established villain.
