Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Sergeant Thomas Canning, 1st Battalion, 95th Foot, Rifles

Military General Service 1793-1814, 6 clasps, Corunna, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca (Sergeant T. Canning, 95th Foot, Rifles.) rank neatly engraved before officially impressed naming; Waterloo 1815 (Sergeant Thos. Canning. 1st Battn. 95th Regt. of Foot.) contemporary re-engraved naming, fitted with replacement silver bar suspension, light contact marks and edge brusies, otherwise good very fine (2) £1,800-£2,200

Thomas Canning was born in the Parish of Aston, Birmingham, in November 1784, and enlisted into the 39th Foot on 1 August 1803, aged 18, before transferring to the 95th Rifles at Colchester on 8 August 1806. He served in ‘Denmark under Lord Cathcart and in Sweden with Sir J. Moore, Corunna in Spain under Sir J. Moore, and Peninsula & Waterloo with the Duke of Wellington. He was discharged on 10 November 1817, in consequence of being ‘undersize’. In 1817 he was recalled to the colours with the 3rd Royal Veteran Battalion for a further period of 1 year and 7 months.

Appended to his discharge papers is correspondence relating to an allegation by the Commissioners of the Royal Hospital Chelsea that he had in some way altered his record of Army service to include more time than he actually served, and a request ‘to transmit without delay your Waterloo Medal’. Since his total time would count towards an army pension, Canning made a robust defence of his case which he appears to have won as he retained his 9 pence per diem Chelsea Out-Pension. His Waterloo medal he states ‘I have not got, but I was engaged all the 3 days viz. 16-17-18 June 1815 and march off the field of Waterloo on the 19th inst.’ The ‘Period of Service’ column on his discharge papers does not mention any Waterloo service, but the second page is annotated ‘Waterloo 2 Yrs’. The appropriate muster rolls for the period April 1815 to December 1816 confirm his presence as a Sergeant at ‘Bruxelles, Paris, Inchy-en-Artois and Cambrai,’ although the letter ‘W’ does not appear next to his name. He did, however, receive his Waterloo Prize Money of £19-4-4 on 4 September 1817. Perhaps the presence of a renamed Waterloo medal above indicates possible forfeiture of the original. Thomas Canning died at Wills Street, Aston Manor, Erdington, on 9 August 1862, aged 78 years.

Sold with copied discharge papers, full muster search and other research, including a copy of a detailed article about the recipient that appeared in the Orders and Medals Research Society Journal, June 2015 (Vol. 54, no. 2).