Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An original admittance ticket for the Duke of Wellington’s funeral and related correspondence in respect of Lieutenant-General Sir George Scovell, K.C.B., the ticket, numbered ‘170’, for a seat in the south side of the centre section ‘under the Dome’, being accompanied by a printed notice for ‘Persons going to the Procession, or holding Tickets of Admission to St. Paul’s’ and a letter from Horse Guards, dated 15th November 1852, instructing the General to report directly to St. Paul’s rather than Horse Guards; together with an original memo written by the General’s nephew, George Scovell, in which he describes the events leading up to and including the day of the funeral itself, ‘On Monday Novr. 14th 1852, my uncle Sir George Scovell, a Lieut. General and Governor of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst came to London accompanied by Lady Scovell and her two nieces, to attend the Funeral of His Grace the Duke of Wellington and stayed at my house, 34, Grosvenor Place, Hyde Park, till Saturday the 20th ... ’, generally in good condition (Lot) £300-350

George Scovell was born in London in March 1774 and was appointed a Cornet in the 4th Dragoons in 1798.

A member of the Quarter-Master’s Staff during the Peninsular War, he is most remembered for his part in breaking French codes with the assistance of a mixed team of linguists, or ‘Army Guides’, the whole enlisted for their local knowledge. In the Spring of 1811 the French commenced using a code based on a combination of 150 numbers known as the ‘Army of Portugal Code’; Scovell cracked the code within two days. As a consequence, the enemy created the ‘Great Paris Code’ which was based on 1400 numbers derived on a mid-eighteenth century diplomatic code - the Grand Chiffre - a code which contained meaningless figures at the end of letters. Yet by December 1812, after a letter had been intercepted from Joseph Bonaparte to Napoleon, Scovell and his team were able to decipher sufficient text to uncover the former’s account of future French plans. In fact, the information gleaned from the letter proved invaluable in securing Wellington’s victory at Vittoria in June 1813; for the full story, see Mark Urban’s The Man Who Broke Napoleon’s Codes (2001).

Towards the end of the Peninsular War, Scovell raised and commanded the Staff Corps of Cavalry, the first formal unit of military police in the British Army. He was appointed K.C.B. in January 1815 and was present at Waterloo on Wellington’s staff. He subsequently served as Lieutenant-Governor (1829-1837) and Governor (1837-1856) of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was promoted to G.C.B. in May 1860. He died in January 1861 and was buried at the college.