Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Waterloo Medal awarded to Corporal James Fox, 18th Hussars, who famously took the bâton of Marshal Jourdain at Vittoria and was rewarded with ten dollars by Lord Wellington

Waterloo 1815 (Corp. James Fox, 18th Regiment Hussars) fitted with steel clip and ring suspension, the usual asterisks erased from either side of the suspension clip, light contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine £3,000-£4,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 13th, 18th and 13th/18th Hussars.

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Collection

Provenance: C. S. Nicklin’s Collection 1911; on sale at Baldwin’s in July 1912; Glendining’s, June 1917; Montague Collection, and Ernest Blair Collection 1937.

James Fox was born in the Parish of Castelbar, County Mayo, and enlisted into the 18th Hussars at Dublin on 27 November 1806, a taylor (sic) by trade. He was promoted to Corporal on 25 March 1814, and was present with the regiment in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. He was discharged on 10 June 1816, ‘Having completed his first period of service.’ He did not serve long enough to obtain a pension and does not appear to have lived to claim an M.G.S. medal.

The part played by Fox at Vittoria is related in Memoirs of the Eighteenth Hussars, ‘Marshal Jourdain’s Bâton’, by Colonel H. Malet:

‘After pressing the enemy’s centre, which was retiring in great confusion, the Hussar Brigade entered Vittoria at a gallop, and turning to the right through the eastern gate along the road leading to Pampeluna. The Regiment followed the 10th Hussars, pursuing the rear of the French Army along the Pampeluna road until sunset, when they halted and bivouacked for the night. The strength of the French engaged was 27,000, and that of the Allies 20,000. A part of the Regiment captured the equipages of King Joseph, and were close to him when he fled precipitately from the field. Corporal Fox, of the Regiment, took the famous bâton of Marshal Jourdain, but took off the gold ends; the wooden part and its case was stolen from him by a friend in the 87th, and this case and stick was presented to Lord Wellington by the Colonel of that regiment. Referring to the matter of this bâton, I here quote from Major Hughes’ letter to his brother, in which he says:-

Corporal Fox, of the Regiment, the real person who took the bâton of Marshal Jourdain at Vittoria, brought me the golden ornaments at the end, which bore the following legend:- “Seror, Belli, Decus, Pacis.” and on the reverse, “Jean Baptiste Jourdain, nommé par l’Empereur Napoleon, Maerschal de l’Empire Floreat, etc., etc.” The stick part had been stolen from him by a drummer of the 87th. I sent the rest with a letter to Lord Wellington, and in reply the following letter was received:-

“Lord Fitzroy Somerset’s compliments to Major Hughes, and is directed by Lord Wellington to acknowledge the receipt of his letter of the 21st of December, and to return his thanks for the ornaments belonging to the bâton which were sent by the same occasion.

“The Marquess of Wellington requests that Major Hughes will have the goodness to give ten dollars to the Hussar who gave him the ornaments, and Lord Fitzroy Somerset will repay the sum to the Paymaster of the Regiment the first time that that officer has occasion to come to headquarters.
“St Jean de Luz, Dec. 28th.”

This victory gained for Wellington the bâton of a Field-Marshal, which was notified to him in a most flattering letter from the Prince Regent. “You have sent me among the trophies of your unrivalled fame the staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that of England.”