Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria, to include the Brian Ritchie Collection (Part II)

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Busaco (E. Hawkshaw, Lieut.-Col. 7th Cacadores) extremely fine £1500-2000

This medal was sold as part of a group at Glendining in February 1953, together with his Field Officer’s Gold Medal and Spanish decoration for the battle of Albuhera, and the M.G.S. to his brother, Major J. S. Hawkshaw, 31st Foot.

Both brothers served together in the 31st Foot in the flank battalions formed by the Grenadier and Light Companies of the Army in Holland in 1799. Edward Hawkshaw joined the Portuguese Service in April 1809 and was promoted to Major in November of the same year. He served with the 7th Cacadores in Spain and Portugal and was present at the battles of Busaco in 1810 and Albuhera in 1811, on which occasion he was wounded whilst in command of his regiment.

The History of the East Surrey Regiment gives an account of his part in the battle of Albuhera: ‘... and on the left, a Battalion of the Loyal Lusitanian Regiment commanded by Major Hawkshaw of the 31st Foot who had served in Holland with the Regiment. The French Cavalry charged again but were stopped by the steady fire of the Portuguese Brigade. The final and victorious charge of the brigade was led by Major Hawkshaw who at the last moment received a wound at close quarters from which he suffered to the end of his life. The Brigadier and all the other commanding officers in the brigade had been killed or wounded previously. Drenching rain came on, and so ended the terrible day’s fighting, the most bloody in all the long Peninsular War.’

Hawkshaw subsequently received a pension of £300 per annum for his wound received at Albuhera, and the Gold Medal for the same action. He was made Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel and placed on the half pay in June 1814, and served in the same year as Assistant Quarter-Master General in Ireland.