British and World Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private Joseph Lester, 5th Dragoon Guards, later 3rd Dragoon Guards

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (J. Lester, 5th Dragoon Gds.) officially impressed naming; Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue, unnamed, contact marks, otherwise very fine (2) £400-450

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including Parchment Certificate of Discharge, dated 18 August 1863; Parchment Certificate of Admission as an Out-Pensioner at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, dated 19 August 1863; Certificate from the Lieutenant-Governor & Secretary of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, granting a Special Compassionate Campaign Pension, dated 23 April 1902; Army Account Book, which also gives his military service and personal details; and his Monthly Settlements, Clothing Account, and Savings Bank Account book for the period 1860-63.

Joseph Lester was born in the Parish of Camberwell, London, and enlisted into the 5th Dragoon Guards at London on 4 July 1854, aged 18. He served with the 5th Dragoon Guards in the ‘Eastern Campaign from the 15th June 1855 to the 5th June 1856, present at the Capture of Sebastopol (Medal & Clasp)’. He landed at Bombay on 9 December 1857, and sometime transferred to the 3rd Dragoon Guards, then serving in India. He was discharged at Ahmednuggur on 17 November 1862, returned to the U.K. and was there admitted as an Out-Pensioner to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, and awarded a pension of 8d per day for two years. He was still alive in April 1902, when he was awarded a Special Compassionate Campaign Pension of 9d per day which he appears to have collected from the Station Paymaster at Canterbury, Kent.