Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare ‘Bentinck Medal’ group of three awarded to Sergeant William Harding, Grenadier Guards

Crimea 1854-56, 4 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Serjt. W. Harding, Grenadier Gds.) officially impressed naming; Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue (Serjt. W. Harding, Gren. Gds.); Grenadier Guards Bentinck Medal for Distinguished Conduct, ‘From Maj.-Gen. Bentinck to Serjt. W. Harding in recognition of the recipient’s Distinguished Conduct during the campaign in the Crimea 1854-5’, rank and name engraved, remainder of inscription struck, good very fine and extremely rare (3) £2500-3000

Ex Glendining’s April 1936, and Sotheby’s December 1991.

Sergeant William Harding is listed as ‘Dead’ according to a War Office list dated 17 December 1856.

Fewer than 20 of these regimental bravery medals are thought to have been presented by Major-General Sir Henry Bentinck, who commanded the Guards Brigade and later the 4th Division in the Crimea. His reward was initially intended for all three Guards Regiments, but when the Coldstream Guards discovered that the first issues had gone to the Grenadiers, they flatly refused to accept their own, arguing that since Bentinck was himself a Coldstreamer, their medals should have been presented first.

Several of the recipients were also winners of the Victoria Cross, and several of the others appear to have been connected with incidents where a Victoria Cross was won. About half of all the medals awarded are now held by the regimental museums of the Grenadier and Scots Guards. An example to the Scots Guards, sold by Sotheby in July 1892, is now in the National Army Museum.