Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Lieutenant Thomas Dunkin, 18th Hussars

Military General Service 1793-1814, 4 clasps, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse (Thos. Dunkin, Lieut. 18th Hussars.); Waterloo 1815 (Lieut. Thomas Dunkin, 18th Regiment Hussars) fitted with original steel clip and ring suspension, the M.G.S. with re-affixed suspension and damaged claw, bad edge cut and heavy edge bruising, therefore fine, the Waterloo nearly extremely fine (2) £3,000-£4,000

Provenance: Waterloo, Spink 1912, and Mackenzie Collection, Glendining’s, June 1934; M.G.S., Spink, June 1980, and since reunited.

Thomas Dunkin was appointed Cornet in the 1st Dragoons on 11 July 1811, and transferred as Lieutenant, by purchase, to the 18th Light Dragoons on 19 September 1811. He exchanged with Lieutenant Hon. C. T. Monckton to the half-pay of the Grenadier Guards, receiving the difference, on 1 April 1819. He served in the Peninsula from October 1813 to April 1814 and was present at the battles and actions of Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Croix d’Orade, and Toulouse.

Although Dunkin clearly received the medal for Waterloo, he is not shown in Dalton’s Waterloo Roll Call. He is mentioned in a letter written by Lieutenant & Adjutant Henry Duperier, on the day following the battle, to Major Hughes, 18th Hussars, who was quartered at the depot at Lewes, in which he noted: ‘Mr Coote was in the rear with provision, and Lieutenant Gordon, with baggage, Lieutenant Dunkin gone to Ostend with Captain Ellis.’ Whether this means he was not at Waterloo or left for Ostend immediately after the battle is not known. He was still alive in 1853 when he is described as being ‘late Ensign & Lieutenant, half-pay, Grenadier Guards.’