The Waterloo Medal awarded to Sir Robert Alexander Chermside, K.C.H., K.St.J., physician to H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent, formerly Assistant Surgeon to the 7th Hussars in the Peninsula and at Waterloo

Waterloo 1815 (Assist. Surg. R. A. Chemside, 7th Regiment Hussars.) note spelling of surname, fitted with steel clip and ring suspension, good very fine £2400-3000

Robert Alexander Chermside, M.D., was the third son of Dr. Chermside, of Portaferry, Co. Down, and was born in 1787. In 1810 he entered the medical service of the army as assistant surgeon to the 7th Hussars. He served in the Peninsula from September 1813 to April 1814, being present at the battles of Nive and Toulouse (entitled to M.G.S. with 2 clasps), and in the Flanders campaign, including the battle of Waterloo. He was afterwards appointed Surgeon to the 10th Hussars and placed on half-pay.

He graduated doctor of medicine at Edinburgh in 1817, and was admitted a Licentiate of the College of Physicians, 16 April 1821. Shortly afterwards he settled in Paris where he resided in the Rue Taitbout, and became physician to the British embassy. He also held the appointment of physician extraordinary to H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent, mother of the future Queen Victoria.

He was made K.H. in 1831, Knight Bachelor in 1835, and K.C.H. in 1837, and was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1843. He was also a knight of St. John of Jerusalem; a knight of the Red Eagle of Prussia, conferred for services to the Prussian troops in the campaign of 1815; and a knight of the Legion of Honour of France. Sir Robert Chermside died at Oxford on 8 September, 1860. He was the grandfather of Lieutenant-General Sir Herbert C. Chermside, G.C.M.G., C.B.