Auction Catalogue

8 & 9 May 2019

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

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Lot

№ 252

.

8 May 2019

Hammer Price:
£14,000

The Waterloo medal awarded to Lieutenant William Dobbs, 3rd Battalion, 1st Foot (Royal Scots), who was wounded three times in the Peninsula and again at Waterloo, where no other regiment suffered higher casualties amongst its officers, as a percentage, than the Royal Scots, in killed and wounded

Waterloo 1815 (Lieut. William Dobbs, 3rd Bat. 1st Foot. or R. Scots.) fitted with original steel clip and silver bar suspension, good very fine £10,000-£12,000

William Dobbs was aged nineteen on his first appointment to the Army, ‘As a Volunteer from the County Limerick Militia retaining the Rank & Pay in said Corps having previously obtained His late Royal Highness the Duke of York’s permission.’ He was appointed Ensign in the 1st Foot on 22 August 1813. Dobbs was slightly wounded at Osma on 18 June 1813, in operations prior to the battle of Vittoria, and severely wounded in the battle of Vittoria itself, on 21 June 1813. He was present at both sieges of San Sebastian and was severely wounded at the second storming of that city on 31 August 1813. In all the London Gazette casualty notices for these actions Dobbs is recorded as a ‘Volunteer’ in the 1st Foot. Dobbs left the Peninsula in October 1813, was promoted to Lieutenant on 29 September 1814, and awarded a pension of £50, commencing on 1 October 1814.

Dobbs was wounded for a fourth time at the battle of Waterloo, when the 3rd Battalion, 1st Foot (Royal Scots), suffered very heavy casualties of 362 officers and men at Quatre Bras and Waterloo; in fact no Regiment suffered higher casualties amongst its officers, as a percentage, than the Royal Scots, in killed and wounded. He was married in Dublin, to Mary Nugent, on 24 June 1822 and had not had any children when he completed his ‘Statement of Service for Retired Officers’ in 1829, at which period he was residing at Kingstown, Dublin and Douglas, Isle of Man. William Dobbs died on 13 May 1844.