Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Crimea ‘Thin Red Line’ D.C.M. group of three awarded to Private A. Drummond, 93rd Highlanders

Distinguished Conduct Medal, V.R. (Andrew Drummond. 93rd. Highlanders); Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Sebastopol (1010 Andrew Drummond 93 Sutherland Highlanders) contemporarily engraved naming in a decorative style; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, a contemporary tailor’s copy marked ‘J.B.’, unnamed, all with different decorative top silver riband bars, good very fine (3) £3000-4000

Provenance: J. B. Hayward, October 1972; Christie’s, November 1990.

D.C.M. recommendation dated 8 January 1855.

Andrew Drummond was born in Shathmigh, Fife, in 1818 and attested for the 93rd Highlanders at Cupar, Fife, on 6 April 1836. He served with the Regiment in North America for ten and a half years, and subsequently with the Highlanders in the Crimea, and was present at Balaklava on 25 October 1854, when the 93rd routed the Russian cavalry and won themselves the title of “The Thin Red Line”. The Times correspondent, William Howard Russell, who, standing on the hills above, could clearly see that nothing stood between the Russian cavalry and the defenceless British base but the ‘thin red streak tipped with a line of steel’ wrote of the 93rd:

‘With breathless suspense everyone awaits the bursting of the wave [of Russian Cavalry] upon the line of Gaelic rock, but ere they came within 200 yards another deadly volley flashes from the levelled rifle, and carries terror into the Russians. They wheel about, open files right and left, and fly back faster than they came. Brave Highlanders! Well done! shout the spectators.’

Drummond was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, together with a Gratuity of £5, and was discharged on 25 August 1857, after 21 years and 142 days’ service.