Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Captain R. Wield, 95th Regiment, severely wounded in trenches at Sebastopol, 22 August 1855

Crimea 1854-56, 1 (loose) clasp, Sebastopol (Robt. Wield, Captn, 95th Regt.) engraved naming; Ottoman Empire, Order of Mejidie, 5th Class breast badge, silver, gold and enamel; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed, plugged, fitted with a ‘British Crimea’ style suspension, good very fine (3) £600-700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A fine Collection of Medals to the Sherwood Foresters.

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Robert Wield was born in Annan, Dumfrieshire. He served in the ranks, October 1843-August 1854, being commissioned an Ensign on 10 August 1854 and promoted to Lieutenant in December 1854 and to Captain in April 1858. Served in the Crimea War, 1854-55. Captain Wield was severely wounded by grape shot while serving in the trenches before Sebastopol, 22 August 1855 (London Gazette 4 September 1855). For his services he was awarded the Order of Medjidie 5th Class

In the biography of Lieutenant-General Sir William Butler, some mention is made of Wield: ‘.... There was an old Captain of the 95th Regiment in the battalion who had his quarters on the opposite side of the passage where I lived - Captain Wield - “Old Bob Wield” as he was popularly called amongst us youngsters. He was a very quaint specimen of a soldier now quite extinct. He drank a good deal, and smoked pipes of many kinds of colours. He spoke the broadest Lowland Scotch. .... He was native of Wigtown where his father had been the principal baker, and young Bob’s business had been to deliver bread through the town. He preferred to try his fortune as a soldier, and enlisted in the 95th Regiment. He went to the Crimea as Colour Sergeant, was at Alma and Inkerman and did his full share of trench service. One day a round shot hopped over the parapet and struck Colour Sergeant Wield in the chest. Fortunately a wave of wind which came a little in front of the ball had turned the man slightly on one side, so that the mass of iron only carried away two or three ribs, laying bare the heart below them. To all appearance he was killed; but there was a spark of life still left in him; the heart had no been touched. “As they were carrying me back through the trenches” he used to say “we met a surgeon who had a well-filled box of medical comforts, and the first thing this good fellow did was to empty a pint of strong brandy down my throat; that kept my heart going and saved my life”. It must be said that Old Bob never forgot the liquid to which he owed his salvation (!) ...’

Captain Wield died at Indore, India of congestion of the brain brought on by intense heat, 7 June 1860.

With copied research. The medals contained in a 24.5 x 18cm. wooden glass-fronted case.