Orders, Decorations and Medals

Pair: Captain John Griffith, 12th Light Dragoons

Military General Service 1793-1814, 4 clasps, Egypt, Vittoria, Nivelle, Nive (John Griffith, Adjt. 12th Lt. Dgns.); Waterloo 1815 (Adjutant John Griffith, 12th Reg. Light Dragoon.) fitted with later silver ring and bar suspension, the ‘N’ of Dragoon additionally engraved, the ‘S’ obscured by the ring, the pair mounted from a double brooch pin, the Waterloo with edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine, the M.G.S. good very fine (2) £6000-8000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 9th and 12th Lancers.

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John Griffith originally enlisted into the 33rd Light Dragoons before enlisting into the 12th Light Dragoons. He served with the 12th Light Dragoons in the Egypt campaign of 1801, and was wounded on the left thigh in the action of the 21st March. In 1809 he served at Walcheren and subsequently in the Peninsula from July 1813 until the end of that war in 1814. Adjutant Hammond being killed at Vittoria, Griffith was commissioned Cornet and Adjutant, from Regimental Sergeant Major, on 29 July 1813, and was afterwards present at Nivelle and Nive. He was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant and Adjutant on 4 May 1815 and served in the campaign of 1815, including the battle of Waterloo. He was afterwards appointed Adjutant to the 5th Dragoon Guards, 10 April 1823; Lieutenant & Adjutant 28th Foot, 15 October 1829; Lieutenant & Adjutant 99th Foot, 28 January 1831.

In April 1835, whilst serving with the 99th Foot in Mauritius, Lieutenant Griffith made a submission for a Captain’s commission with the following memorial:

‘That Your Lordship’s Memorialist entered His Majesty’s Service in the 33rd Light Dragoons in the Year 1794, since which period he has been constantly and actively employed, with the exception of a few months, making a total Servitude, including 2 Years for Waterloo, of upwards of Forty Three Years.

‘That he had the honour to be present with his Regiment, the 12th Lancers, in Egypt and the Peninsula - at Walcheren, and ultimately at the memorable battle of Waterloo, on which latter occasion he held the situation of Adjutant to his Corps, having been appointed to a Cornetcy with that Rank immediately after the battle of Vittoria in which he had been engaged.

‘That Memorialist was Adjutant to the 12th Lancers upwards of 8 years, and afterwards to the 5th Dragoon Guards for 7 Years, making a Servitude in that Rank of Fifteen Years, and in the performance of duties of the most arduous nature.

‘Your Lordship’s Memorialist being still actively employed in the Service of His Majesty, on a Foreign Station, and at his advanced period in Life, without any reasonable prospect of the retirement which his long and arduous Services would naturally lead him to look forward to, earnestly begs to be permitted to submit his case to the favourable observation of Your Lordship, and prays that you may be pleased in consideration of what he has stated to honour him by an appointment to the unattached rank of Captain under the late gracious arrangement for the Promotion of Officers of long standing in the Army, and in the confident hope that Your Lordship will be influenced by that generosity which has ever characterised You under similar circumstances.’

Captain 1st West India Regiment, 28 June 1839. Captain John Griffith retired on full pay on 29 July 1839 and died on 15 November 1859.