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

The Field Officer’s gold medal pair to Lieutenant-Colonel Bayntun Stone, 58th Regiment, who commanded a Provisional Battalion at the battle of Nivelle

Field Officer’s Gold Medal 1808-14, for Nivelle (Major Bayntun Stone, 2nd Bn. 58th Foot) complete with gold ribbon buckle and contained in its red leather case of issue; Sultan’s Medal for Egypt 1801, 4th Class, gold, 36mm., complete with original gold hook and chain suspension, extremely fine, as issued (2) £7000-8000

With the medals is an old hand-written note: ‘Medals of Lt.-Colonel Bayntun Stone (see Foster’s Royal Descents, and Genealogy of Stone of Badbury). Left by the will of his son Henry Stone of St Catherines, Argylshire, late of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, to his second cousin Robert Sidney Stone.’

Bayntun Stone was appointed Ensign in the 58th Regiment on 23 November 1799, becoming Lieutenant in May 1800. He served in the campaign in Egypt where the regiment was greatly distinguished and for which he received the gold medal from the Sultan of Turkey. He was promoted to Captain in the 58th in December 1804 and possibly served with the regiment at Maida in 1806. In the Peninsula he took over command of the 2/58th after Major F. B. Campbell was wounded in one of the several actions in the Pyrenees during the summer of 1814.Consisting of just four weak companies, the 2/58th detachment formed part of a provisional battalion and was commanded by Major Bayntun Stone at the battle of Nivelle on 10 November 1813. Stone, whose regimental rank never rose beyond Captain, was placed on half pay in December 1818, and made a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army in July 1830. Lieutenant-Colonel Stone died in 1846.