A rare ‘Light Brigade’ French Medaille Militare group of three awarded to Honorary Captain P. R. Teevan, 11th Hussars, who was wounded during the charge at Balaklava while serving as a Troop Sergeant-Major

Crimea 1854-56, 4 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Serjeant Major P. R. Teevan, 11th Prince Albert’s Own Hussars), contemporary engraved naming in an accepted regimental style; France, Second Empire, Medaille Militaire, silver, gilt and enamel; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue (1159 Qr. Mr. Serjt. Rourke Teevan, XI P.A.O. Hussars), regimentally impressed naming, with ring suspension, the second sometime refurbished but the enamel work now largely lacking, contact wear and edge bruising, nearly very fine (3) £6,000-£8,000

Patrick Rourke Teevan was born in Co. Carlow in July 1834 and enlisted in the 11th Hussars at Dublin in July 1843, aged 19 years. Advanced to Corporal in June 1848, to Sergeant in September 1851 and to Troop Sergeant-Major in August 1854, he landed in the Crimea in the following month.

Teevan was subsequently ‘present at the battles of Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Tchernaya, the siege of Sebastopol, the surprise of McKenzie’s Farm, and other engagements’, and was awarded the French Medaille Militare ‘for conspicuous gallantry in leading the left troop of the right squadron into, and bringing it out of action at the charge of Balaklava, in which he was wounded’ (The Times obituary, 14 February 1902, refers).

Having recovered from his wound, which Lummis states to have been to his right hand, and participated in the actions listed above, Teevan was briefly attached to the Land Transport Corps from March to April 1856, and returned home with the 11th Hussars in July of the same year.

As a result of the usual ‘reduction of the establishment’ at the end of the Crimea War, Teevan reverted to the rank of Sergeant, but in April 1858, he was advanced to Regimental Quarter-Master Sergeant. Further promotion followed when he was commissioned as a Quarter-Master in November 1865, and in July of the following year he was embarked with the regiment for India. Here he remained until June 1869, when he returned home on sick leave, but in March 1870 he rejoined the regiment at Muttra. He was finally placed on the Retired List with the rank of Honorary Captain in March 1876.

Teevan, who became a member of the Balaklava Commemoration Society in 1879, attended the Officers’ Balaklava Dinners in 1892 and 1893. According to Lummis, he was ‘a very popular officer in the regiment’, and died in London on 23 January 1902, and was interred in Islington cemetery. His gravestone survives to this day, and bears the simple epitaph, ‘One of the Six Hundred’.

Sold with original Times obituary cutting; a somewhat worn bullion/cloth uniform badge of the 11th Hussars; and a copied portrait photograph.