Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private William Kerr, 12th Light Dragoons

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Egypt, Vittoria (William Kerr, 12th Light Dragoons); Waterloo 1815 (William Kerr, 12th Reg. Light Dragoons) fitted with steel clip and small ring suspension, light contact marks and edge bruising, the first good very fine, the second nearly very fine (2) £3000-3500

The first ex Gray Collection 1911.

48 Egypt clasps issued to the regiment.

William Kerr was born at Woodman, Kent, and served for 3 years in the Lanark and Dunbarton Fencible Cavalry before enlisting at Sandwich into the 12th Light Dragoons on 20th March 1800. A note sold with his medal states that he was ‘wounded in the left thigh on 21st March 1801’, but this is not recorded on his discharge papers which state only that he ‘Served in the Peninsula & Waterloo’. He was discharged to Pension on 16 February 1819.

William Kerr died at Portslade, East Sussex, in March 1854, and was buried in the parish church where his headstone still survives with the following inscription:

In memory of
William Kerr
who died March 25th 1854. Aged 75.
William Kerr was for eighteen Years
a Private in the 12th Light Dragoons and
served in Egypt, Spain and Flanders,
under Abercrombie and Wellington.
He was present at the Battles of
Alexandria, Salamanca, Vittoria
and Waterloo.
He resided thirty-six years in this Parish
and was remarkable during the latter
part of his life for his gentleness of
disposition and general good conduct.
He died hoping and paying for mercy
in the name of his Redeemer.



Sold with photograph of his headstone and copied death certificate and discharge papers.