Auction Catalogue

27 & 28 September 2016

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 829

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28 September 2016

Hammer Price:
£1,600

A ‘Heavy Brigade’ pair to Private P. Keating, 5th Dragoon Guards, who was subsequently sentenced to penal servitude for his alleged part in a Fenian mutiny in 1866. He and his co-conspirators, including the well known poet and author John Boyle O’Reilly, were transported on the Hougoumont - the last ship to transport British convicts to Australia. His death, as a consequence of his time in Fremantle Prison, acted as inspiration for the ‘Catalpa Rescue’ in 1876

Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Patr. Keating 5th Dn Gds) engraved naming, suspension claw re-affixed, unofficial rivets; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed as issued, plugged with silver straight bar suspension, with regimental badge, contact marks, good fine (lot) £600-800

Provenance: Glendining, September 1990.

Patrick Keating was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1825. He served with the 5th Dragoon Guards in the Crimea, and is shown in the musters as being effective from 1 October to 30 November 1854, and as such probably rode in the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava.

Keating was sentenced to penal servitude for life in 1866. This was for being involved in an alleged mutiny, and
Forgotten Heroes, The Charge of the Heavy Brigade gives the following, ‘John Boyle O’Reilly, the well known Irish poet was one of the principal characters in the plot, with fellow prisoners, were all held in an Irish jail. Colour Sergeant Charles McCarthy, Private Patrick Keating and James Wilson of the 5th Dragoon Guards, Private Michael Harrington of the 61st Foot, and Thomas Darragh of the 2nd Queens. The testimony’s of Private Foley and Rorreson seem to indicate the soldiers had taken part in a Fenian oath ceremony. All the mutineers were dealt with by the courts and O’Reilly, Keating and several others were deported to Fremantle in Australia on the last convict boat [Hougoumont] out of the UK. A small group of ring leaders - Keating included, kept good friends and a year later with the help of the Irish Republican Brotherhood managed to buy a boat and escape to America.’

Keating did not in fact ever leave Australia again. He did remain close with the rest of the political prisoners, and was involved in constant discussion whilst imprisoned. In July 1873 a ticket to leave Fremantle Prison was granted to Keating on the grounds of ill health. He died of an aneurism of the heart in January the following year.

In 1876, six out of the 17 men who were Court Martialled and transported to Australia managed to escape from their imprisonment. They escaped on an American whaling ship which had been hired by Irishman John Devoy from the United States. Devoy had received a letter from James Wilson, one of the convicts in Australia, who wrote of their treatment and concerns in his ‘Letter from the Tomb’. In the letter he described the death of Patrick Keating (he was at his death bed), and directly asked for help to escape their ‘living tomb’.

Keating’s death, as well as the deterioration in health of some of the other Fenian prisoners, was an inspiration for the ‘Catalpa Rescue’ mentioned above. The rescue itself is now part of Fenian history.