Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. To coincide with the OMRS Convention

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Java (A. Dalgety, Lieut. 89th Foot) nearly extremely fine £1200-1500

Only two officers and one Assistant Surgeon of the 89th lived to claim the medal for Java.

Alexander Dalgety was born in Canada on 23 September 1788, son of Captain Alexander Dalgety, 101st Regiment, who married Dorothy Jane Gonnerman at Montreal in January 1785. Alexander was the third son but his two elder brothers died in their infancy, and his mother died giving birth to a younger brother who also died shortly afterwards. He joined the 89th Regiment as an Ensign on 10 June 1806, and was promoted to Lieutenant on 28 July 1808. He served with the 1st Battalion at the capture of Java in 1811 but appears to have transferred to the 2nd Battalion, then serving in North America, shortly afterwards. He married in December 1815 and retired on reduction of the 2nd Battalion in the following year. He appears to have remained in Canada for his eldest son, Frederick Gonnerman Dalgety, was born at Montreal in December 1817. This son emigrated to Australia in 1834 where eventually he founded Dalgety and Company, which still survives today as Dalgety plc, an international company with subsidiary companies throughout the world. Alexander Dalgety, whose first wife died in July 1843, married again in September 1844, and had one further son, his seventh child. Lieutenant Dalgety died at Bideford, Devon, on 18 May 1853, aged 64.