Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A well documented Crimea and Mutiny veteran’s campaign group of four awarded to Colour Sergeant G. W. Evernden, Rifle Brigade

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (G. W. Everenden [sic]. 2nd Batn. Rifle Bde.) officially impressed naming, edge detail slightly worn at start of naming; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Lucknow (Geo. W. Everndon. 3rd Bn. Rifle Bde.) suspension claw tightened; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (1464 Color Sergt. G. W. Evernden. 3 Bn. Rif. Bde.); Turkish Crimea, British issue (4262 G. W. Evernden. 2nd. Batn. Rifle Bde.) engraved naming, plugged with Crimea-style suspension, all with contemporary silver top-riband buckles, and slightly frayed contemporary ribands; suspension slack on last, all darkly toned, generally good very fine (4) £2,600-£3,000

George William Evernden was born in Westminster, London, in 1834. He attested for the Rifle Brigade at Westminster in June 1854, and served with the 2nd Battalion in the Crimea. Evernden arrived in the Crimea on Christmas Day 1854, and his account records in detail the wretched conditions that he and his fellow soldiers faced.

Evernden contracted Typhus, and ‘was so queer had to go to the hospital. That was the 8th of January 1855... I remember that all the beds in the hospital was full and I had to lay on the floor like a good many more. I recollect that I was delirious but how long I don’t know. They told me when I was getting round that it was almost a case with me.
I know that I was brought down to almost a skeleton, and all there was to get my strength up again was dry hard biscuit and some meat boiled with rice. If I had got money I should have spent it all on bread for that seemed the only thing I craved for.
I had asked the doctor every time he come to give me some and he said I could not get any as there was none allowed. There was one thing that helped me on. That was port wine which I got plenty of. In fact I believe kept me alive.
It was very painful to see so many poor fellows around me dying. Always about 2 or 3 going off every day and to hear them in their deliriums raving about their friends at home. I have laid turning from side to the other and wished myself out of the place and with my regiment.
And I fancied that I could get up and walk away. But when I made the attempt to put my feet out of bed, I had not the power to get my body out. And all my back bone was sore and my hips with bed sores.’ (recipient’s account included in lot refers)

Evernden spent a month in hospital before being discharged to the convalescent depot. The conditions in the latter were of a similar level, ‘my suffering I cannot describe as I was so weak and the bed sores on my poor back and hips was very bad... having no beds or any thing to make one of, we laid in our clothes and we were swarming with vermin. In fact no one could think how we kept alive.’ (Ibid)

Evernden returned to his Battalion, and was soon back into the routine of trench life:
‘So I took to my duties with the rest and went on about 4 in the morning and came off again at 8 in the evening. And then had to go about 10 to carry shot or powder to the front till about 12. And up again at 4 for trench duty again.
And that’s what they would call a night in bed, and we did not dare take off our clothes and boots. Had to lay with everything on ready to turn out at a moments notice. Our rifles we had to sleep with ready to lay hold of them....
The first engagement I was in was on the 22nd March about 1 or 2 in the morning. The Russians attacked our works. I was out on sentry with another behind some stones and we could hear the enemy coming up, long before they attacked us. And both of us being young soldiers we did not know what to do.
The bullets began to fly about pretty sharp and the big guns was tearing away on both sides. But as our orders were to retire and fire when we saw the enemy we could not leave our place till we seen something.
It being a very dark night the enemy had got quite close up on our right and was fighting away with our fellows. At last we got the order to retire but of course Englishmen don’t like that order. But I must own I felt rather glad of it.
And in we came. And we was getting it from both our own men and the enemy. The shot was coming down on us like hailstones.’ (Ibid)

Evernden was in action again, notably during the attacks on the Redan:
‘On the 7th of June [1855] we made an attack on the enemy’s works and took the quarries from them... The quarries was a Battery in front of the Redan and was called the quarries by us on account of it being built up mainly with stone.
And it got the name of the slaughter house on account of so many men getting killed in it.
I forgot to mention a few nights before we took this place, I was standing up on the look out over the trench behind the gabions... So I was behind these, a gun was fired, I saw the flash and bobbed and give the word to look out. When before the last word was out I was sprawling on the ground covered with earth.
The shot had struck between the two where I was standing and pushed. I might say, knocked them in and sent me flying. But however I managed to drag myself up and found that I was not much hurt.... These quarries was a horrid place to do duty in. We were rather too close to the enemy to be comfortable. And they had a knack of throwing a lot of small 7 lb shot of a mortar very near straight up and letting them come down amongst us....
One night a shell was coming down and a man named King was watching it till it fell on his head and blew it all away. When we come to look there was only a cotton handkerchief round his neck and burning but not a bit of his head left...
On the 18th of June we made a great attack on the Great Redan Battery and lost my own Regiment over 200 men. Other Regiments losing great numbers. In fact it was a most Bloody affair and we had to retire. And for days the stench of the dead was almost unbearable. Being in the heat of Summer so that bodies so soon got decomposed.’ (Ibid)

Evernden transferred to the 3rd Battalion for service in India, with whom he served during the Mutiny, on the North West Frontier, and advanced to Colour Sergeant. He wrote an account, aged 72, on his later service which was published in the St. Neots Advertiser in November 1906 (a copy of which is included in the lot). After Evernden’s discharge from the army, he moved to St. Neots, Cambridgeshire. He was initially employed as Timekeeper at the Bower’s Works, before becoming the landlord of The Village Blacksmith at Eynesbury, St. Neots. Evernden led the 1911 Coronation Day parade at held at St. Neots - a copied picture of him in his wheelchair wearing his medals for this occasion is included with the lot.

Evernden died 11 July 1916, and ‘at the funeral in St. Neots Cemetery on Tuesday afternoon, at which the Ven. Archdeacon Hodgson officiated, about thirty of the St. Neots Volunteers - Capt. J. W. Addington in command - lined up on each side of Church Street, near the vicarage, and presented arms as the coffin passed. Afterwards they preceded the coffin from the Church to the Cemetery, and rested on their arms reversed during the service at the graveside. On the coffin rested the veteran’s four medals, his crossed guns, and Colour Sergeant’s stripes.’ (article included in lot refers).

Sold with the following related documentation: recipient’s hand-written account of his service in the Crimea, in notebook form, approximately 8,000 words; sepia portrait photograph of recipient in uniform wearing his medals; Memorial Card, commemorating recipient’s death, 7 July 1916; a copy of Three Chose War, compiled by G. Moore, in which the recipient’s diary and later account of service during the Indian Mutiny are fully reproduced; with further research and copied newspaper cuttings.

For the recipient’s miniature awards, see Lot 1212.