Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Military General Service 1793-1814, 4 clasps, Sahagun, Vittoria, Orthes, Toulouse (Edmond Drewett, 15th Hussars.) edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine and scarce £2,000-£2,600

103 clasps for Sahagun issued, mostly to the 15th Hussars who were not present at the subsequent action of Benevente.

Edmond Drewett/Drewitt was born on 8 December 1788, in the Parish of Coggs, near Witney, Oxfordshire, and attested for the 15th Hussars at Queen’s Square, London on 18 December 1805, aged 17, a bricklayer by trade. He served ‘nearly three months in Spain in 1808-09, one year and four months in Portugal, Spain and France in 1813 & 14, and was in the Battle of Vittoria, Orthes and Toulouse. About a year in the Netherlands and France in 1815 & 16 and was at the Battle of Waterloo. Wounded at Vittoria in the head and at St Germier in the right arm. Distinguished himself as a Brave Soldier in Action.’ He served a total of 28 years, including two years for Waterloo, and was discharged to a Chelsea Hospital out-pension on 11 December 1832, in consequence of sciatica in the right leg and thigh which has left the limb weak and stiff. The Principal Medical Officer at Chatham reported that his ‘constitution [was] much broken by wounds and long service.’ During his service he had been promoted to Corporal on 25 August 1815, but was reduced to Private on 22 April 1821, in which rank he served the rest of his time. Edmund Drewett is listed in the regimental history by H. C. Wylly as one of the N.C.O.’s and men who specially distinguished themselves in the Peninsula, South of France and Waterloo, and he was also noted in his discharge papers as being a ‘Brave Soldier in Action.’

Edmund Drewett was married to Elisabeth Owen in Manchester on 18 June 1819, where two months later the 15th Hussars played a pivotal role in the notorious ‘Peterloo Massacre’. He was still alive and living as an ‘Army Pensioner’ at Coggs in 1861.

Sold with copied discharge papers and other research.