Orders, Decorations and Medals Including five Special Collections

South Africa 1877-79, 1 clasp, 1879 (Captn. J. M. Benthall, 1st Dragn. Gds.) extremely fine £450-550

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Gordon Everson.

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John Matthew Benthall was born at Upton, Torquay, on 6 August 1840, and educated at Exeter School in 1856-57. He became an articled clerk at Exeter before purchasing an ensigncy in the Miliatry Train on 20 December 1859. He became Lieutenant, again by purchase, on 30 September 1860, and served with the 1st Battalion in Canada from December 1861 until July 1862. He exchanged into the 1st Dragoon Guards in July 1865, and became Captain, by purchase, on 22 July 1868. Benthall served in Natal during the Zulu War of 1879 as Captain of “C” Troop, being stationed at Conference Hill until employed at the sick horse depot at Landman’s Drift. He afterwards served with the regiment in India, becoming Major in July 1881, and Lieutenant-Colonel on 31 December 1884, on which date he retired. He lived at his childhood home of Furzewell House, Torquay, and indulged in his hobby of collecting coins and Napoleonic medals. He died at South Kensington, London, on 2 June 1888.