A FINE ROYAL HORSE GUARDS MGS & WATERLOO PAIR TO A TROOPER WHO WAS SEVERELY WOUNDED AT WATERLOO WHERE HIS REGIMENT SUFFERED 45% CASUALTY RATE AS PART OF THE HOUSEHOLD BRIGADE

MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE 1793-1814, 2 CLASPS, VITTORIA, TOULOUSE ‘THOMAS WILKINSON, ROYAL HORSE GUARDS.’; WATERLOO 1815 ‘THOMAS WILKINSON, ROYAL HORSE GUARDS.’ WITH LATER STEEL CLIP AND SPLIT RING SUSPENSION

Thomas Wilkinson, a butcher by trade, aged 19 from St Martins, joined the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) on 2nd September 1808. He served with the Regiment in the , including the battles of Vittoria and Toulouse. At the , Wilkinson served in Captain W. R. Clayton’s Troop and was severely wounded. According to his service papers;

‘A wound by a shell on the hip joint in the battle of Waterloo on the 18th June 1815, destroying a great potion of the muscles of the left thigh and the leg nearly useless’

Unsurprisingly, after such a dreadful wound, Wilkinson was discharged on 17th February 1816, due to being lame in the left hip.

THE ROYAL HORSE GUARDS IN THE PENINSULAR

‘Four troops Royal Horse Guards embarked at Portsmouth for Portugal in October 1812. By about 15 January 1813 the Blues had reached Thomar. Hill was ordered to rendez-vous at Alba de Tormes, crossing the Douro the army pressed on to the city of Salamanca. After quarters in monasteries the brigade forded the Douro at Toro on 4 June. Two days they escorted the reserve artillery to Valoria; totally outflanked the enemy withdrew to Burgos. Encamped outside Burgos the brigade was awakened by a huge explosion at dawn on 13 January: the French had decided to blow up Burgos Castle. In a lightning quick march Wellington circled across the Ebro cutting off the French retreat to Vitoria at Puente da Arenas. The were ordered to Carcarno with the reserves. Hill was ordered to seize the bridges at La Puebla in preparation for a three-pronged assault on the French positions in the mountainous passes. Arriving at Subijana de Alva Hill's brigade rolled back the French left onto Vitoria. In 1813, Major Packe took temporary command in the battle of Vittoria, traversing a deep ravine along the Pamplona road. The Blues, with Household brigade already enganged, wheeled right across the ravine. Bivouacked on the road at Pamplona, General Hill had orders to hold it as the Life Guards gave chase. The deftness of the manoeuvre embarrassed the French generals: the defeat ended Napoleon's grip on Spain. The victory earned Wellington a Field Marshall's baton.

The Blues were sent home in 1814 via St Jean de Luz, where they were joined by three fresh squadrons under Captains Irby and Kenyon and Major Fitzgerald. The future Viscount Combermere could not praisely highly enough the regiment's conduct, so while the older Life Guards were sent home, the Blues remained on active service. Marching to Bayonne and Pau they arrived at Toulouse on 10 April 1814.’

AT WATERLOO

‘Royal Horse Guards part of Lord Uxbridge's Cavalry corps of 14,550 troops. The Oxford Blues were in the mid-column of Sir John Eiley's Household Brigade, when they marched in the early hours of 16 June 1815 towards Quatre Bras via Enghien down narrow Belgian lanes. They spent an uncomfortable night; the weather was hot and humid. It rained all night. As dawn broke, heavy rain made the ground a quagmire. On the day of battle, The Blues drew up in the second line behind the Life Guards. They should have held the formation, when Uxbridge gave the order to charge. Robert Hill was wounded in the clash with the 4th Cuiassiers, shot by a chasseur. Major Packe was run through and fell dead off his horse; indeed all the commanding officers in the brigade were slain in their ferocious attack on the Curassiers, however they fought Ney's cavalry to a standstill. The Household brigade also had the sense to limit their advances, unlike the Union Brigade, which paid dearly for its over enthusiasm.’ Just 237 Officers and men of the Royal Horse Guards were present at Waterloo, of which 106 became casualties (45%). Interestingly, although of the four regiments of the Household Cavalry Brigade, the 2nd Life Guards have the highest casualty rate (67%), 97 of their number were posted missing. The Royal Horse Guards had just 20 missing and in killed and wounded (especially Officers), the figure was 86, whereas the 1st Life Guards had 79 and the 2nd Life Guards 58. The 1st Guards had 151, however they had double the number of men on the field than the other regiments (530)

Condition VF Light contact marks and abrasive marks to edge of both medals from cleaning, obverse/reverse unaffected. Ex Spink 1973.