Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Colour Sergeant Instructor of Musketry H. Rose, Essex Regiment, whose Army Reminisces paint a graphic picture of his services as a solider in the mid to late 19th Century

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, undated reverse, 1 clasp, The Nile 1884-85 (1228 Cr. Sergt. H. Rose. 2/Essex. R.); Army Meritorious Service Medal, G.V.R., 1st issue (C. Sjt: H. Rose. 2/Essex Regt.); Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (1228 Cr. Sgt. H. Rose. Essex R.) rank partially officially corrected; Khedive’s Star, dated 1884-6, the reverse impressed ‘1228. H. R.’, pitting from Star, therefore nearly very fine, the MSM good very fine (4) £500-£700

Henry Rose was born in Northington in Hampshire in 1849, and attested for the 56th Regiment of Foot at Aldershot on 2 November 1867. Posted to India on 1 March 1871, he was promoted Corporal on 23 December 1873, and Sergeant on 9th December 1875. Advanced Colour Sergeant on 24 July 1883, he served with the 2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment (as the 56th Foot had become) in Egypt and the Sudan from February 1884, and took part in the Gordon Relief Expedition down the Nile as part of the River Column.

Awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 1 January 1886, he was posted to the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Essex Regiment as a Colour Sergeant Instructor, and qualified at the School of Musketry at Hythe in April 1889. He was discharged on 31 May 1901, and was awarded his Meritorious Service Medal, with annuity, in 1915.

Sold with a copy of the recipient’s Army Reminisces (10 pages) which paints a graphic picture of the privations experienced by a private solider in the mid to late 19th Century: ’Rations at this time were very poor... flogging was still the order for certain crimes... our billet [in Ireland] was red brick barracks which had not been occupied for 24 years except by hundreds of rats...’; and copied research.