Pair: Private Angus McKay, 79th Foot

Military General Service 1793-1814, 5 clasps, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Toulouse (Angus McKay, 79th Foot.); Waterloo 1815 (Angus M’Kay, 1st Batt. 79th Reg. Foot.) fitted with original steel clip and small ring suspension, the second with edge bruising and contact marks, fine, the first nearly very fine (2) £2,800-£3,200

Provenance: Pair sold at Glendining’s in 1974 and 1978 but possibly a composite pair.

M.G.S. confirmed on roll as ‘Mackay’. Two men of this name present with the regiment at Waterloo, both in Captain James Campbell’s Company No. 6, one of whom was severely wounded, the other slightly wounded.

The only papers found relate to one Angus McKay who was born in the Parish of Tongue, Dornoch, Sutherland and enlisted into the 79th at Dundee, Forfar, on 6 November 1802, aged 26. Whilst this man was present in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, where he was slightly wounded in the head and hand, his discharge papers record that, in addition to the five clasps on the above medal, he was also present at Corunna and Fuentes D’Onor, and was severely wounded in the left arm at Busaco 27 September 1810. He was discharged in the rank of Sergeant at Dublin on 27 June 1821, but the date of his death is unknown.