Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Baltic 1854-55 (G. B. Bentley. R.M.L.I.) contemporarily engraved naming, traces of lacquer, very fine £120-160

George Butters Bentley was born in Stonehouse, Devon, in August 1833, the son of a serving Royal Marine. He was educated at Greenwich School, and enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry in February 1847, serving as a Drummer in the Woolwich Division. He served during the Baltic Campaign in H.M.S. Monarch (where he is noted on the Baltic Medal Roll as a Fifer), and was promoted Corporal in October 1858 and Sergeant in July 1859. He was awarded his Naval Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, together with a gratuity of £10, on 3 December 1872, and was advanced to Barrack Sergeant. Several newspaper reports in June 1876 mention that Bentley was before a General Court Martial on charges arising from the misappropriation of Barrack Stores. The outcome of the trial is unknown, but he retired from the Service the same month, with his conduct noted as ‘exemplary’. He died in Greenwich in 1893.