Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Waterloo 1815 (George Smith, 1st or Royal Dragoons.) fitted with steel clip and replacement bar suspension, clip re-fixed with solder, obverse pitted, fine, the reverse better £1600-1800

George Smith was born in 1780 in the Parish of Lavington, near Petworth, Sussex, and was a labourer by trade prior to his enlistment into the Hampshire Fencible Cavalry on 1 November 1799. On 8 March 1800 he volunteered for the regular army and enlisted at Lewes into the 1st Dragoons for unlimited service. He served ‘near five years in the Peninsula and at Waterloo’ and was discharged at York on 19 October 1823, at which time his commanding officer recommended him for ‘His Majesty’s Royal Bounty of Chelsea’ leading to the grant of a pension of 1s 1d per day.

He served at Waterloo in ‘G’ Troop commanded by Captain Alexander Kennedy Clark who personally captured the French eagle of the 105th Regiment, after a desperate fight, in which he was severely wounded. George Smith was the only man of this name serving in the regiment at this period and he was later issued with the M.G.S. medal for Vittoria and Toulouse. Sold with copied discharge papers.