Orders, Decorations and Medals

Military General Service 1793-1814, 11 clasps, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse (C. O’Neill, Lieut. 83rd Foot) very fine and rare £2800-3200

The maximum number of clasps to an officer in the 83rd and the only one issued.

Charles O’Neill volunteered for the army from the North Mayo Militia at the age of eighteen years. He was appointed Ensign in the 83rd Foot on 4 June 1808, and became Lieutenant on 4 January 1810. He proceeded with his regiment to the Peninsula and took part in all the major engagements at which the 83rd were present. He was ‘severely wounded at the Storming of Badajoz in Spain on the 6th April 1812’, but his wounds clearly did not stop him participating in the remainder of the campaigns in Spain and Portugal. He failed to obtain a pension for his wounds but did receive one year’s pay as a Lieutenant commanding a Company. O’Neill was placed on Half-pay in October 1819, on the reduction of the Establishment in the Island of Ceylon, but subsequently transferred to the 2nd Veteran Battalion in October 1823, and to the 33rd Foot in October 1825. He became Captain on the Half-pay in June 1827, after which he was generally resident at Ballyshamon in Ireland, and finally went on the Half-pay of the 2nd Foot in January 1835.