Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hazara 1891 (2309 Pte. J. Leadbetter, 1st Bn. R.W. Fus.), suspension post bent, edge bruising, nearly very fine £120-160

See Dix Noonan Webb, 17 May 2016 (Lot 1003) for the recipient’s Boer War Tribute Medal, an unrecorded example from the town of New Mills in Derbyshire; the catalogue entry describes the presentation ceremony.

Joseph Leadbetter enlisted in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Wrexham on 31 December 1888, aged 19, and served eight years at home and in India before transferring to the Army Reserve on 3 January 1897, a period in which he witnessed active service in the Hazara operations in 1891 (Medal & clasp). On 2 January 1898 he married Mary Elizabeth Keeling, a cotton reeler in one of the New Mills factories. Recalled from the reserve and re-joining the 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in October 1899 he fought in the Boer War throughout Buller’s Natal campaign and beyond. He returned to the United Kingdom on 23 December 1901 after two years and two months away from home on active service in South Africa (Queen’s Medal & 6 clasps). He was discharged at Wrexham on 1 January 1902 with his intended place of residence as Bank Side, New Mills, near Stockport.