Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Major-General Gibbes Rigaud, 2-60th King’s Royal Rifle Corps

South Africa 1834-53 (Capt. G. Rigaud, 2nd Bn. 60th Rifles.); China 1857-60, 2 clasps, Taku Forts 1860, Pekin 1860 (Major G. Rigaud, 2nd Bn. 60th Rl. Rifles) edge bruising and contact marks, better than good fine (2) £1,200-£1,500

Provenance: Elson Collection 1963.

Gibbes Rigaud was born on 22 May 1820, at Richmond, Surrey, the third son of Stephen Peter Rigaud, the Astronomer and Radcliffe Observer at Oxford. He was appointed Ensign in the 60th Rifles on 11 June 1841; Lieutenant, 26 July 1844; Captain, 16 August 1850; Major, 22 June 1858; Lieutenant-Colonel, 15 February 1861; Colonel, 22 April 1868; Major-General, 1 February 1873.

Rigaud served throughout the Kaffir War of 1851-53 (Medal), and the China War of 1860, where he received the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel and was mentioned in despatches (Medal with 2 clasps). He served 5 years in India and was instrumental in quelling a mutiny which broke out on board a troopship which had become becalmed on the voyage to India. He retired on full pay in 1876 and spent his remaining years writing in the City of Oxford. Among his works is Celer et Audax, an excellent history of the 60th Foot in the Peninsula War. He received an Honorary degree of M.A. from Oxford University. He died on 1 January 1885 and is commemorated by a plaque in Winchester Cathedral. Sold with comprehensive research including a number of copied photographs.