Auction Catalogue

4 December 2002

Starting at 12:00 PM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Lot

№ 8

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4 December 2002

Hammer Price:
£6,000

The Peninsula pair awarded to Lieutenant William Chapman, 1st Battalion, 95th Foot, late Captain, 1st Caçadores, wounded at Redinha in 1811 and at Quatre Bras in 1815

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Busaco (W. Chapman, Lieut. 95th Foot); Waterloo 1815 (Lieut. William Chapman, Rifle Brigade, 1st Batt.) fitted with steel clip and ring suspension, some light contact marks and edge nicks, otherwise good very fine (2) £3500-4500

William Chapman was aged thirty-one on his first appointment to the Army, as an Ensign in the Leicester Militia, on 4 March 1806. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 6 April 1807, and granted a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 95th Foot on 4 April 1809, having volunteered from the Leicester Militia with 127 men:

‘We reached Hastings that same night where we found that the volunteering of the Leicester Militia (who were quartered there) had commenced, and that one hundred and twenty-five men and two officers had given their names to the 7th Fusileers, and these Adams and I determined to make change their minds in our favour if we could. The appearance of our Rifle uniform, and a little of Sergeant Adams’ blarney, so took the fancy of the volunteers, that we got everyone of them for the Rifle Corps, and both officers into the bargain... The names of these two officers were Chapman and Freere’ (
Recollections of Rifleman Harris).

Chapman was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in March 1810, fought with the 95th at the battle of Busaco in September 1810, and was appointed to the Portuguese Service, as a Captain in the 1st Caçadores, in February 1811. He was wounded at Redinha on 12 March 1811 and left the Portuguese Service in February 1812. He next saw service with the 1st Battalion at the battle of Quatre Bras, where he was wounded on 16 June 1815. Chapman exchanged to half-pay of the Corps on 12 April 1819, and ‘Retired in consequence of wounds.’ He died at Leamington, Warwickshire, on 12 February 1854.