Auction Catalogue
Create new listSutlej 1845-46, for Moodkee 1845, 2 clasps, Ferozeshuhur, Sobraon (Major J. W. Nunn, 80th Regt.) edge bruising, otherwise good very fine
£1000-1200
James Winniett Nunn was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1789, and was first commissioned as an Ensign in the 32nd Regiment on 7 April 1804, aged 15 years. He became Lieutenant in May 1805, and removed the following month to the 31st Regiment, with whom he served in Sicily in 1806, and in the expedition to Egypt in 1807. Promoted to Captain in December 1810, he continued to serve in the Mediterranean theatre.
In April 1814 Captain Nunn distinguished himself at the capture of Genoa. ‘The right of the French position was guarded by a battery of four guns, which was stormed with conspicuous courage by the light company of the Thirty-First, led by Captain Nunn, in spite of a galling flank fire of musketry and artillery from another battery close by.’ In the Divisional Orders of the following day, Major-General Montressor made special of ‘the conspicuous bravery of the light company of the Thirty-First Regiment in carrying the battery on the left.’ Captain Nunn was also thanked in Lord William Bentinck’s orders, dated Genoa, 24 April 1814.
In December 1815, Captain Nunn removed to the 80th Regiment, on reduction of his own 2nd Battalion of the 31st Regiment. He served overseas with the 80th in the Ionian Islands, September 1828 to December 1829, and in the Australian Colonies, from July 1837 until November 1844, when the regiment sailed for Bengal. Nunn had been promoted to Major in July 1844 and served as the senior Major throughout the Sutlej campaign of 1845-46, including the battles of Moodkee and Ferozeshuhur, and the storming of the enemy’s entrenchment at Sobraon.
Appointed brevet Lieutenant-Colonel shortly afterwards, Nunn was in command of the 80th when the regiment left Lahore for Meerut in January 1847, but he was taken ill on the march and died on arrival at Meerut, on 2 February 1847.
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