The Collection of Medals Formed by Bill and Angela Strong

The Field Officer’s Gold Medal awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel R. Kelly, 66th Regiment, who was wounded while commanding the 2nd Battalion at Talavera and afterwards lent valuable service in the Kandian War as a Major in the 4th Ceylon Regiment

Field Officer’s Gold Medal 1808-14, for Talavera (Captn. Richd. Kelly, 66th Regt.), complete with gold riband buckle, suspension with old repair, extremely fine £8000-10000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Bill and Angela Strong Medal Collection.

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Richard Kelly, ‘the first of three generations of men all bearing the honoured name of Richard Kelly’, was originally commissioned in the 41st Foot in January 1799, but was placed on half-pay on the reduction of the Army after the peace of Amiens. On hostilities recommencing, he was posted to the 67th Regiment, and shortly afterwards obtained permission to raise a company - the required number of men largely being drawn from his father’s tenantry in Ireland - following which, in March 1806, he was gazetted as a Captain and posted to the 2nd Battalion, 66th Regiment.

Senior Captain of the Battalion by the time it was embarked for Portugal in March 1809, he assumed command of the unit on Major Murray being severely wounded in the passage of Douro, and remained on command for next two years, taking the 66th into action at Talavera, where he was wounded by a fragment of shell but did not quit the Field - the Battalion was heavily engaged and sustained losses of 16 Killed and 99 wounded.

Kelly was subsequently present at Busaco and also in the lines of Torres Vedras but, having been recommended for a Majority following his leadership at Talavera, was disappointed to be posted to the 4th Ceylon Regiment. On quitting the 66th, he was presented by the officers of the 2nd Battalion with a fine silver-mounted sword as ‘a mark of their high esteem and regard and to return their acknowledgements for his kindness to them while they had the happiness of serving under his command’, which sword was included in a militaria auction at Bonhams on 1 December 2009 (Lot 353). Also awarded the Field Officer’s Gold Medal for Talavera, Kelly died however before the issue of the Peninsular Medal.

Embarked for Ceylon at the end of 1810, he greatly distinguished himself as C.O. of the 4th Ceylon Regiment during the suppression of the Kandian Rebellion in 1818, receiving the approbation of Sir Edward Barnes and some interesting souvenirs from the capture of Hanuranketa, ‘among them the King of Kandy’s punch-bowl - afterwards used at the private baptism of his eldest grandson - the gold flexible chain that encircled the waist of the King’s infant son, and some very fine pearls, subsequently divided between his two daughters.’

Having been given the Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel in August 1815, Kelly was appointed to a substantive Majority in the 83rd Foot in January 1818 and remained employed in Ceylon until July 1821, and again between April 1825 and May 1829. Then in the latter, through the influence of Lord Hill, the C.-in-C., he exchanged into the 34th Regiment and went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he commanded the Regiment until 1833. He died in 1845.

Sold with a quantity of original letters and orders from the period 1820-32 (approximately 15), the majority relevant to Kelly’s time in Ceylon, including a letter of commendation, dated at Colombo on 1 June 1820, acknowledging safe receipt of the recipient’s account of recent proceedings and stating that the General was ‘perfectly satisfied with all and everything you have done’, and an interesting communication from Downing Street recommending ‘three young persons, natives of Madagascar, the sons of Native Chiefs in that island’ to his protection during a voyage to be undertaken in the Alexandra in October 1824; together with Horse Guards letter regarding his Brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel and another Horse Guards communication regretting that he could not be appointed to a Companionship of the Order of the Bath, dated 18 December 1832, but that ‘His Majesty has always entertained a very high opinion of your merits and services, some of which come under his immediate observation and notice.’