Another census deciphering thread - but also with a bit of Crimean geography

[Another2Cats]

Well actually, it's not the census, but something similar. It's from a list of campaign medals from the Crimean War.

I'm currently looking at a relative who died in the Crimean War. He appears in the list of soldiers eligible for the relevant campaign medal but it also says:

"Died at Lake ????? 18 Sept"

It sounds as though he drowned or something similar happened to him, or maybe there was some minor fighting before the first major battle on the 20th Sept 1854?

Can anyone help decipher the name of the lake (and might anybody know what the current Ukrainian name might be)?

I think that the name of the lake may begin with the letter T rather than L. Looking elsewhere at entries in the same hand, the way the letter T is written in the word that appears to be "trenches" (on the second image) appears to be the same. But I have no idea.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

There's a Lake Tuzla. Might fit, allowing for some variation in historic transliteration as Torzlar or Touzlar?

I think it is written as Lake Tougla on your jpg - see my attachment. However, it's really difficult to find these places spelled phonetically like that. There are so many spelling options, and Tougla seems to be a rare choice! If you look for where the famous Admiral Cospatrick Baillie Hamilton was on 26 Oct 1855, you may be able to find the lake on a map.

Yes, I agree with this. Touzla and Tougla could easily be confused by someone trying to read bad handwriting. 😀

Thank you so much for this, I really do appreciate it.

I've been looking on the map and doing a bit of extra digging.

Apparently they landed in Yevpatoriya over a number of days in September and then marched south to the river Al'ma which was the site of the first major battle on the 20th September.

There appear to be at least four different lakes nearby, any of which could have been the one mentioned.

"If you look for where the famous Admiral Cospatrick Baillie Hamilton was on 26 Oct 1855, you may be able to find the lake on a map."

Thank you very much for finding that. I'll do some more research into that