Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Military General Service 1793-1814, 3 clasps, Pyrenees, Orthes, Toulouse (John Carter, 20th Foot) medal has been expertly restored, some edge bruising, good very fine £1000-1200

Provenance: Surgeon H. Mitchell Collection; ex Spink, March 1993 when it was sold with the single clasp ‘Maida’. Mullen lists the recipient as being only entitled to the three clasps ‘Pyrenees’, ‘Orthes’, ‘Toulouse’. Since its sale in 1993, the medal has been expertly restored, having the incorrect ‘Maida’ clasp removed and fitted with the three clasps to which he was entitled.

John Carter was born in West Woodhay, Berkshire. Employed as an Agricultural Labourer in the village, he enlisted into the Militia in December 1812, aged 16 years. From the Militia he attested for the 20th Regiment on 1 April 1813. Posted to the Peninsula, he served in the Pyrenees, 25 July-2 August 1813, and later at the battles of Orthes, 27 February 1814 and Toulouse, 10 April 1814. Research suggests that he was wounded at Orthes. Carter continued to serve in the regiment after the war, being discharged in August 1834. Listed as a Pensioner, he died of bronchitis in West Woodhay, near Hungerford, Berkshire on 22 April 1864, aged 73 years.

With a folder containing much research. The medal and the man are featured in the article, ‘The 20th at Orthes’, by Kenneth Marsh, which was published in Medal News of September 2010.