command of the British-Italian Legion in Turin, where he arrived in August. The British-Italian Legion was a mercenary force raised following the passage of the 1854 Foreign Enlistment Act to fight for the allies (France, Great Britain and Turkey) in the Crimean War, modelled along the lines of similar foreign legions raised in the Napoleonic Wars. The Kingdom of Sardinia had already entered the Crimean war on the side of the allies and Count Cavour, Prime Minister of Sardinia, was in theory supportive of the British Government and Percy's efforts to recruit and train a fighting force in Turin. However, the project became mired in bureaucracy, suffered from lack of funds and inadequate resources and was eventually rendered redundant by the fall of Sevastopol in September 1855 and a formal end to hostilities six months later. Given this, Percy resigned his command of the British-Italian Legion in October 1855 in a state of total exasperation. After leaving the British-Italian Legion, Colonel Percy was asked by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, British Ambassador to Turkey, to attempt to relieve the Siege of Kars, Armenia, which was being defended by Brigadier-General Williams. However, Kars fell to the Russians on 28 November 1855, the day after Percy arrived in Constantinople, so the expedition was called off before it got under way. Colonel Percy was an accomplished linguist and Turkophile, so in January 1856, after the armistice in the Crimea but before the signing of the Treaty of Paris in March 1856, he was ordered by General Codrington, Commander-in-chief of the British Army in the Crimea, to reconnoitre possible landing places in Asia Minor in case of a continuation of hostilities along the Caucasus front. Relations with the Royal Family From 29 June 1855 he was an Aide-de-camp to the Queen – a post he held until 10 February 1865. He was gazetted for the Victoria Cross (VC) on 5 May 1857. As the most senior officer in the British Army to be awarded the VC during the Crimean War, Percy was on the occasion of the first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London, on 26 June 1857 tasked with commanding the 62 recipients who had the decoration pinned to their breasts by Queen Victoria that day. In the summer of 1861, as commanding officer at the Curragh, he was tasked with overseeing the Prince of Wales' military induction. Colonel Percy was