Auction Catalogue

2 April 2004

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Lot

№ 67

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2 April 2004

Hammer Price:
£3,600

Waterloo 1815 (Ensign A. Ormsby, 3rd Batt. 14th Reg. Foot) fitted with large silver clip and bar suspension, contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late John Darwent.

View The Collection of Medals formed by the late John Darwent

View
Collection

Sold with medal for Bhurtpoor at Sotheby in November 1911, and catalogued as a pair in the Mackenzie collection in 1934. The Waterloo medal alone was next offered for sale by J. B. Hayward & Son in 1979.

According to Hart’s Army List for 1852, ‘Captain Arthur Ormsby served in the Peninsula from March 1809 until 1811, and was present at the crossing of the Douro, and in the Lines of Torres Vedras. He served the campaign of 1815 with the 14th, and was present at the battle of Waterloo and storming of Cambray, at which last he was slightly wounded. Served afterwards in the East Indies, and was present at the siege and capture of Hattras; also in the Deccan campaign of 1817 and 18; and the siege and capture of Bhurtpore under Lord Combermere.’

The first sentence of the above statement would appear to be untrue, for Arthur Ormsby first entered the Army as an Ensign, without purchase, on 2 June 1814, aged 22 years. These facts are all confirmed in his Statement of Services, made in or after 1833, which also states that he was born in Dublin on 28 November 1792. Promoted to Lieutenant on 27 January 1823, he went on half pay as a Captain in 1838, and died in 1851.