SINGLE CAMPAIGN MEDALS 1 CARIB WAR 1773, silver, cast and chased as usual, with fixed ring suspension, good very fine and rare £800-1000 Ex Sotheby, June 1977, Lot 86 (£700). These medals were authorised by the Legislative Assembly of the Island of St Vincent and awarded to those who took part in the suppression of the Carib native rebellion in 1772-73. The combined British and local force under the command of Major-General William Dalrymple included the 14th, 31st and 70th Foot regiments. 2 ALEXANDER DAVISON’S MEDAL FOR THE NILE 1798, bronze, at onetime fitted with ring suspension, this now detached, about very fine £140-180 3 NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Navarino (James Edgcombe) good very fine £1400-1600 Ex Needes Collection, April 1940. James Edgcombe served as a Private in the Royal Marines aboard H.M.S. Albion at Navarino. He was born at Underwood, Devon, and was enlisted by Lieutenant Edwards at the Royal Marines Head Quarters on 22 June 1825, aged 19. He was discharged to Plymouth Hospital suffering from paralysis of his left arm on 4 October 1830. Sold with copied muster rolls. 4 NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (A. Tower, Mate) good very fine £700-900 Ex Hayward, June 1976. Arthur Tower was born on 15 April 1816, the fourth son of Christopher Thomas Tower of Weald Hall, Essex. Entering the Royal Navy and passing his examinations in July 1836, he served as Mate aboard H.M.S. Ganges in the operations on and off the coast of Syria during 1840. He then served as Mate aboard the surveying vessel Beacon, being promoted to Lieutenant in November 1842. As an Additional Lieutenant he served in the Mediterranean on the Queen and Formidable, December 1842-April 1844 and later as a First Lieutenant on the Ringdove in the East Indies. He was promoted to Commander in July 1854 and retired in about 1865. www.dnw.co.uk SINGLE CAMPAIGN MEDALS 5 The Peninsula War medal awarded to Major G. T. Brice, 3rd Dragoon Guards, who was severely wounded at Talavera, taken prisoner by the French and confined to Verdun MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Talavera (G. T. Brice, Capt. 3rd Dragn. Gds.) in original named card box of issue, dark toned, extremely fine £3000-3500 George Tito Brice was born circa 1782 and entered the army by purchasing a cornetcy in the 3rd Dragoon Guards on 17 October 1799. He was promoted to Lieutenant in April 1801; reduced to half-pay but reappointed as Lieutenant in September 1802, and promoted to Captain in December 1803. The 3rd Dragoon Guards landed at Lisbon on 26th/27th April 1809 as part of Fane’s cavalry brigade. On 4 May they marched north to join Wellington’s army and took part at the battle of Talavera on 27th/28th July. On the 28th the 3rd Dragoon Guards and 4th Light Dragoons, having moved into the plain to the left, advanced to charge a column of the enemy’s infantry, but the attack was countermanded, and the two regiments, after supporting the charge of Major-General Anson’s brigade, were ordered to resume their former position. It was during these movements that Captain Brice was severely wounded by a cannon ball. Brice was one of the unfortunate casualties left behind at Talavera after Wellington withdrew to Portugal and consequently became a prisoner of war of the French until April 1814. He arrived at the notorious fortress of Verdun on 13 May 1810. During his period of captivity, spent largely on parole in the town at his own expense having given his word not to attempt escape, he received the brevet of Major in May 1813. His pension for wounds received at Talavera, £100 per annum, was dated from 25 December 1811. A curious obituary announcement of his death appeared somewhat prematurely in The Gentleman’s Magazine for January 1814 (Volume 84, Part 1) which stated: ‘At Great Cranford, where he had lately arrived from France, Capt. Brice, 3rd drag. guards, son of the Rev. George Tito B. vicar of that parish. He was severely wounded at the battle of Talavera, and had been a prisoner four years at Verdun. Bounaparte signed his passport, with those of four other wounded officers, at Dresden, the beginning of September.’ Brice, very much alive, was confirmed in the rank of Major in January 1818 and eventually settled down in Fordingbridge, becoming the local magistrate and a Deputy Lieutenant for Hampshire. He died at his home, Packham House, on 29 March 1862, aged 80. 6 MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Toulouse (John Struwer, 2nd Lt. Dgns. K.G.L.) slight edge bruise to reverse, good very fine £700-800 www.dnw.co.uk SINGLE CAMPAIGN MEDALS 7 The Peninsula War medal awarded to Lieutenant Charles Walker, 5th Dragoon Guards, who was severely wounded in the regiment’s famous charge at Llerena in April 1812, when the French cavalry was thrown into confusion and swiftly broken MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Vittoria, Toulouse (C. Walker, Lieut. 5th Dgn. Gds.) extremely fine £3000-3500 Ex Glendining’s, April 1904, May 1914, February 1927, January 1931, and Leyland Robinson 1952. Charles Walker served a year as an Ensign in the 37th Foot prior to his appointment as a Lieutenant in the Kildare Militia, in which regiment he served from 1800 to 1806. He was appointed Cornet, without purchase, in the 5th Dragoon Guards on 1 January 1807, having procured upwards of sixty men for service in the army. He was promoted to Lieutenant in December 1810, Captain in May 1817, and to Major in July 1823. He retired 6 April 1826 having served with the regiment in the Peninsula from September 1811 to April 1814. Walker was severely wounded in the famous charge of the 5th Dragoon Guards at Llerena (also known as the battle of Villagarcia after the village nearby) on 11 April 1812, when, after a forced march of 60 miles, the regiment attacked a force three times its number of French cavalry, and, in company with the Light Brigade, put them to flight. The only officers wounded were Major Prescott, slightly, and Lieutenant Walker, severely, both of the 5th Dragoon Guards, but only Walker lived to receive the M.G.S. medal. He consequently missed the battle of Salamanca but had rejoined the regiment in time to take part in the battles of Vittoria and Toulouse, at which last battle the 5th Dragoon Guards were instrumental in saving the Portuguese guns from capture. He retired as a Major in April 1826 and died at Aldringham, Suffolk, on 7 November 1854, aged 66. Llerena/Villagarcia On the evening of 10 April 1811, General Cotton climbed the steeple of a church in Bienvenida. He knew that the French were occupying Llerena and saw that there were considerable numbers of French cavalry five miles closer to him near the village of Villagarcia. Cotton decided that he should attempt to trap the French cavalry with his superior forces. During the night he despatched Ponsonby with the 12th and 14th Light Dragoons to probe the Villagarcia area, whilst Le Marchant was sent on a circuitous march to get on the French left flank and, it was hoped, cut off their retreat. Slade was also instructed to concentrate his brigade on Bienvenida, though he seems to have been tardy in moving. Cotton retained the 16th Light Dragoons as a reserve. At some time during the night Cotton realised that Ponsonby's force might alert the French before Le Marchant was within striking distance and despatched an aide- de-camp with orders to halt the light cavalry; unfortunately the order arrived too late. Two squadrons of the British light cavalry had forced the French vedettes out of the village of Villagarcia but, around dawn, had run into the full force of the French cavalry and were then chased back. Ponsonby subsequently found his two regiments faced by the three strong regiments under Lallemand and had to make a controlled withdrawal whilst skirmishing against heavy odds. Following his orders, Le Marchant had moved his brigade though the night over tortuous terrain for a considerable distance. Coming down from rugged hills bordering the plain where the action was fought Le Marchant and the 5th Dragoon Guards had pulled considerably ahead of the other two regiments of the brigade. Le Marchant noticed, looking through the trees of the wood his men were moving through, that French cavalry, drawn up in two deep columns of squadrons, were pushing the six squadrons of light dragoons back towards a narrow ravine flanked by stone walls. Le Marchant realised that an immediate charge was needed before Ponsonby's squadrons were forced into the congested and broken ground to their rear. Lallemand, it is recorded, caught a glimpse of red-coated figures in the woods to his left and rode to alert General Peyremmont, who was leading the 2nd Hussars. Peyremmont scorned Lallemand's concerns, saying that the British dragoons were probably a small detachment who had lost their way. At this point the advantage that the French had enjoyed in the action was suddenly reversed. Le Marchant led his dragoon guards out of the woods and they formed their ranks whilst accelerating into the charge. The 5th Dragoon Guards attacked with their squadrons in echelon, their left refused, and struck the deep and exposed left flank of the French formation to considerable effect. Simultaneously with Le Marchant's charge the 16th Light Dragoons, led by Cotton, appeared to Ponsonby's right-rear; they jumped a stone wall in line, and also charged.