Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Army of India 1799-1826, 1 clasp, Bhurtpoor (Lieut. W. Wingfield, 10th. L. Cav.) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming, edge bruise, good very fine £1,200-£1,600

Provenance: Christie’s, July 1987.

Watkin Wingfield was born on 7 June 1803, the second son of the Reverend Rowland Wingfield, vicar of Ruabon, Denbighshire, and was educated at Rugby. He was commissioned Cornet, 10th Bengal Light Cavalry, on 21 May 1823, and was promoted Lieutenant on 13 May 1825. He served at the siege and capture of Bhurtpoor and its dependencies in 1825-26, and was appointed Adjutant on 25 November 1826. He subsequently served in the Governor General’s Bodyguard from 23 March 1827 to 15 November 1831.

Wingfield retired in 1836 and became a playwright and poet. A close family friend of Sir Percy Florence Shelly, Bt., the son of the great romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelly and Mary Shelley, Wingfield’s work ‘The Hidden Treasure’ was revised by Shelley prior to final publication in 1877. He died in London on 23 September 1886.