Auction Catalogue

27 June 2007

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

Lot

№ 211

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27 June 2007

Hammer Price:
£950

A probable “charger’s” Crimea Medal to Quarter-Master A. C. Gully, 13th Light Dragoons: he was advanced to Sergeant just three weeks before the charge and the headstone erected over his grave by fellow N.C.Os of the regiment in 1866 confirms his presence at Balaklava

Crimea 1854-56
, 4 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Serjeant Augustus Curtis Gully, 13th Light Dragoons), depot impressed naming, refixed suspension and edge bruising, otherwise very fine £1000-1200

Augustus Curtis Gully was born in Bangalore, India, in April 1832, the son of Sergeant John Curtis Gully, 13th Light Dragoons, and enlisted in father’s regiment at Longford, Ireland in February 1850 - a few months later his father was discharged at Dublin as a Troop Sergeant-Major after 23 years with the Colours.

Young Augustus was advanced to Corporal in May 1854 and served without respite with the regiment throughout the Crimea War, being advanced to Sergeant on 1 October 1854, shortly before the famous charge of the Light Brigade (regimental musters refer). He was also present at Alma and Inkermann, and in the operations before Sebastopol. In November 1854, following Balaklava, he was appointed a Hospital Sergeant, and in November 1856, after the regiment’s return to the U.K. and being reviewed by Queen Victoria at Royal Clarence Dockyard, he was advanced to Quarter-Master. Gully was still serving in the same capacity at Pockthorpe Barracks, when he died in February 1866, and was buried in the Earlham Road Cemetery, Norwich, three days later. The following inscription appears on the headstone erected by his fellow N.C.Os:

‘Alma - Balaklava - Inkermann. In Memory of Quarter-Master C. Gully, 13th Hussars. Died 6th of February 1866. Aged 35 years. This Stone was Erected by Brother Non-Commissioned Officers as a Token of Their Esteem and Respect.’

He left a widow, Janet Gully, then living in the parish of St. John’s, Norwich, but during the course of the Crimea War he had sent money home to a sister, Jane, then resident with ‘Mrs. Cureton, Hampton Court Palace’.

Provenance:
Lummis & Wynn state that a single Turkish Crimea Medal appeared at a Sotheby’s auction on 9 July 1898, but give no details in respect of naming or die-type; Glendining & Co. sold a Crimea Medal with 4 clasps, and an unnamed Turkish Crimea, British die, in March 1968 (Lot 51), and, judging by the catalogue description, it was the same pair of awards subsequently sold by Spink on 17 December 1997 (Lot 353); the unnamed Turkish Crimea, British die, has since been removed in lieu of Lummis & Wynn’s reference to a Sotheby’s auction in July 1898.