Orders, Decorations and Medals

Military General Service 1793-1814, 5 clasps, Albuhera, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees (S. Curry, 27th Foot) original riband with button loop, edge nicks, otherwise nearly extremely fine £1200-1400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Series of Peninsular War Medals.

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Samuel Curry, a labourer from Sandfield (or Saintfield) in Co. Down, enlisted in the 27th Foot in July 1809.

The 3/27th having already landed at Corunna in October 1808, he joined his comrades at a subsequent date, but in time to see action at the battle of Albuhera in May 1811, when only one company of his regiment was deployed, thereby making his entitlement to the appropriate clasp a rarity.

At the siege and storm of Badajoz the 27th’s losses were very severe, namely 303 officers and men, but casualties were fortunately only slight at Salamanca and Vittoria. However, in the battles of the Pyrenees, particularly at Sorauren in July 1813, where the Battalion made four successful bayonet charges on the 28th, casualties were again very heavy, with the further loss of 300 men. And it was in the final phases of this battle, when the French were well and truly on the run, that Curry received the wounds that caused him to be discharged in September 1814, aged 24 years - ‘Wounds of the right arm received in action, the 1 August 1813, in the Pyrenees’ (WO 97/460 refers).

Curry was awarded a pension of 6d. per day, which was increased to 9d. in March 1858 and to 1/- in April 1863, and was still living in the 2nd Belfast district in the following year.