Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Crimea medal awarded to Lieutenant and Adjutant John Chadwick, 17th Lancers, who was severely wounded and taken prisoner at Balaklava in the charge of the Light Brigade

Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Sebastopol (Lieut. & Adjt. John Chadwick. 17th Lancers.) official Hunt & Roskell engraved naming, very fine £6,000-£8,000

Provenance: By descent to the present vendor who was gifted the medal by his aunt in 1940.

A fine example of a Hunt & Roskell officially engraved Crimea medal, numismatically correct in every respect.

John Chadwick was born in about 1817 and enlisted into the 17th Lancers at Manchester in July 1835, regimental number 451. By 1851 he was Regimental Sergeant-Major and a member of Captain Morris’ Troop. He was promoted to Cornet on 27 February 1852, and to Lieutenant on 25 October 1854. He ‘served in the Eastern campaign of 1845 as Adjutant of the 17th Lancers, including the affair of Bulganac, battle of Alma, siege of Sebastopol, and battle of Balaklava, where he was severely wounded and taken prisoner, having also had his horse killed (Medal with three Clasps, and Turkish Medal).’

During the charge, Chadwick managed to reach the Russian guns but his horse, having been weakened by a loss of blood, could not move any further. He was then left to defend himself before a lance point to his neck knocked him from his horse and rendered him helpless. He was one of only two officers taken prisoner by the Russians, the other being Cornet Clowes of the 8th Hussars, and was released 12 months later. On 29 April 1856, he exchanged into the 15th Hussars on half pay, later becoming an Honorary Captain in 1858 and appointed Adjutant and Quartermaster of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin.

In 1864, in Lord Cardigan’s lawsuit, he re-affirmed that a statement made by Patrick Rafferty of the 17th Lancers that Cardigan had reached the guns was truthful. Chadwick’s wife died in Dublin in 1867 and because of his failing health he decided to retire in December 1867, travelling to Liverpool where he lived at 25 Hurst Street. He died of cirrhosis ascites at the Southern Hospital, Greenlands Street, Liverpool, on 25 March 1869, and is buried in Arnfield Cemetery, Liverpool. All his effects were left to his brother Henry who lived in Sale, Cheshire.

Also sold with a copy of History of the British Empire by W. F. Collier, LL.D., London 1863, the fly leaf inscribed in ink ‘James & John Chadwick July 20th 1864’ and with the name of the present elderly vendor and date that he was given the medal and the book ‘May 5th 1947’