Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Army of India 1799-1826, 2 clasps, Battle of Deig, Capture of Deig (J. Atkins, 76th Foot.) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming, naming lightly rubbed, otherwise good very fine £4,000-£5,000

Provenance: First recorded at Baldwins in 1956; offered by London Stamp Exchange 1987; Buckland Dix & Wood, November 1991; Brian Ritchie Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, September 2004.

A total of 12 medals issued with these two clasps, 5 to HEIC recipients and 7 to the 76th Foot. Approximately 47 clasps for the Battle of Deig, nearly half of them to this regiment, and 103 clasps for the Capture of Deig were issued to European recipients.

John Atkins was born in Sheffield in 1772, and originally enlisted into the 88th Regiment on 1 November 1793, a cutler by trade. In May 1804 he transferred to H.M’s 76th Regiment in the rank of Sergeant and shortly afterwards took part in the Battle and Capture of Deig later that same year. He reverted to the rank of Private in December 1808, no doubt as the result of some misdemeanour, and was made up again to Corporal two years later. Corporal Atkins was discharged from the regimental depot at Horsham on 19 October 1814, aged forty-two, as the result of the loss of his left eye by a severe attack of ophthalmia. He had served in the East Indies from January 1799 until February 1806, and had held the rank of Sergeant before reverting back to that of Corporal, in which rank he was discharged. One of Lord Lake’s ‘Handfull of Heroes’.