Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private William Aldridge, 82nd Foot, wounded in the head by a musket ball at Barrosa in 1811

Military General Service 1793-1814, 3 clasps, Barrosa, Pyrenees, Orthes (William Aldridge, 82nd Foot.); 82nd Foot Military Merit Medal 1815, silver, engraved, 42mm; Obv: The Prince of Wales’s plumes and motto, below ‘82’, surrounded by ‘Prince of Wales’s Volunteers’; Rev: ‘Military Merit. William Aldridge 1815.’, on a scroll below, ‘Barrosa Pyrenees Orthes’, fitted with small rings for suspension, good very fine and a unique pair (2) £2600-3000

Provenance: Murray Collection 1891, sold Sotheby, May 1926; Spink, January 1975.

82nd Foot Military Merit Medal 1815 (Balmer R494) the only recorded example.

William Aldridge was born in the Parish of Newchurch, Winwick, Lancashire, circa 1785. He originally enlisted into the 2nd Royal Lancashire Regiment of Militia at Warrington on 5 January 1803, and volunteered to the 82nd Foot at Hull on 3 April 1809. He served in the Light Company of the regiment in Spain and the South of France, 1810-13, during which time he was ‘wounded in the head by a musket ball at Barrosa on the 5th March 1811’. He was also present at the battles of the Pyrenees and at Orthes. He subsequently served in Canada 1814-15, Ireland 1816-19, and Mauritius 1819-24. He was discharged at Port Louis, Mauritius, on 3 January 1824, in consequence of ‘chronic liver disease and being asthmatic. William Aldridge died at Ancoats, Manchester, on 28 November 1854.

Sold with copied discharge papers, full muster details and other research.