Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Military General Service 1793-1814, 4 clasps, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Nive, Orthes (E. Harwood, First Commission Ensn. 32nd Ft.) [area in light italics contemporarily erased and re-engraved] edge bruising and nick to obverse edge, otherwise very fine £1,200-£1,600

Provenance: Glendining, November 1911 and July 1940; Spink, November 1978; Glendining, July 2000; Morton & Eden, July 2019.

Edward Harwood served in the ranks of the 77th Foot and earned his first two clasps as Sergeant-Major in the regiment. The 77th took part in the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition in 1809 and landed in the Peninsula in July 1811, taking part in the battle at El Boden, the siege and capture of Ciudad Rodrigo and the siege and storming of Badajoz, on which occasion he received a wound from a canon shot. By the end of April 1812, the 77th could only muster 183 men from the original 850 that had landed 10 months earlier, so they spent the following 18 months on garrison duty at Lisbon or thereabouts. However, on 21 October 1813, Sergeant-Major Harwood was appointed to a commission as an Ensign in the 32nd Foot and subsequently took part in the battles of the Nive and Orthes. He was placed on half-pay on 25 December 1814, and in later life served as a Captain in the 2nd Somerset Militia. He was still listed in the Army List as late as 1860.

In 1820, Harwood wrote to Charles Grant, Chief Secretary at Dublin Castle, requesting appointment to a suitable post of employment. In it he claims the he was ‘Descendant by many generations of Beneficed Clergymen’, and discusses family connections and his own military service in Europe was interrupted by contraction of ‘Fever and Ague at Walcheren, and by a Cannon shot wound Received while Storming the Castle of Badazos (sic).’

When he received his M.G.S. medal in 1849, he was clearly proud of his advancement to a commissioned officer rank and had ‘Serjt. Major 77th Foot’ erased from the edge and ‘First Commission’ engraved in its place. The rest of the naming is officially impressed as issued. Sold with a file of research including 2 CD’s with details of his post-war career and life.