Auction Catalogue

1 & 2 March 2017

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Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 69 x

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1 March 2017

Hammer Price:
£4,800

A Crimea D.C.M. group of three awarded to Private M. Fitzgerald, 55th Foot, who was severely wounded at the Battle of Inkermann, 5 November 1854- a notorious drunkard and defaulter in peacetime, he was ‘the coolest and most daring of soldiers under heavy fire’ when at war

Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (Michael Fitzgerald. 55th. Regt.); Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Pte. Michl. Fitzgerald 55th. Regt.) contemporarily engraved naming, suspension claw reaffixed; Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue, unnamed, with later scroll suspension, contact marks, nearly very fine (3) £1800-2200

Provenance: Sotheby’s, March 1984.

D.C.M. recommendation dated 15 January 1855.

Michael Fitzgerald was born in Dublin in 1825 and attested for the 13th Light Infantry at Dublin on 17 July 1843. A habitué of public houses, his habit of over-consumption caused him to become an irate pugilistic hothead and led to 4 entries in the Court Martial Book and 23 entries in the Regimental Defaulters’ Book; notable sentences included 28 days’ imprisonment with hard labour for striking and attempting to kick a police constable in the execution of his duty, and saying he would run a bayonet into any policeman that came near him; and 50 lashes and two years’ imprisonment with hard labour for highly mutinous behaviour in striking and attempting to disarm a main entrance guard of the 26th Regiment in Gibraltar.

Fitzgerald transferred to the 55th Foot on 1 April 1854, and served with the Regiment in the Crimea, where he took part in the battle of the Alma, the action of ‘Little Inkermann’ on 26 October 1854, and the battles of Inkermann and Sebastopol. He was one of 88 members of the Regiment who was wounded at Inkermann, 5 November 1854, and for his gallantry during the War he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the recommendation from his commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Cuddy, dated 30 March 1855, stating: ‘I certify that Private Michael Fitzgerald of the Grenadier Company served with the 55th Regiment throughout the Eastern campaign and was present at the battle of Alma, the sortie of the evening of the 26 October, and the battle of Inkermann where he was very seriously wounded. A cooler or at the same time more daring soldier under the heaviest of fires I have never seen and I regret exceedingly that the wound he has received is likely to deprive the Regiment and his Country of the future services of so gallant a soldier. For his conspicuous gallantry in the field I have recommended him for the “Medal and gratuity”, and I should have promoted him had he returned to duty with the Regiment.’

Fitzgerald was discharged as medically unfit at Dublin on 13 June 1856, after 11 years and 214 days’ service, his conduct recorded on discharge as having been ‘very bad’.