Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Nive (Eli Bently, 1st. Foot Gds.) about extremely fine £700-900

Provenance: Glendining’s, September 1907 and February 1953; Spink, September 1994.

Eli Bentley was born in Stainland, near Halifax, Yorkshire, in 1788, and attested for the 1st Foot Guards at Chatham, Kent, on 20 August 1811. He served with the Regiment in the Peninsula, and was present at the Battle of Nive, 9-13 December 1813, and during the Waterloo Campaign, 16-18 June 1815. He was discharged on 12 February 1828, owing to ‘diseased lungs contracted while in the service’, after 18 years and 226 days’ service. Admitted as an in-patient of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, he died on 5 March 1859 when he ’drowned by falling into the River Thames near Southwark Bridge whilst trying to drown a cat.’ (Recipient’s death certificate refers).