Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The General Officers’ large gold medal and other insignia awarded to Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Nightingall, K.C.B., later Colonel of the 49th Foot and Commander-in-Chief successively in both Java and Bombay, who fought under Lord Lake at Laswaree in 1803 and was wounded at Fuentes D’Onor in 1811 when in command of the 1st Division

(a) General Officer’s Gold Medal 1808-14, for Roleia & Vimiera 1808 (Brigr. General Miles Nightingall) complete with original large suspension ring and length of original ribbon
(b) The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, a most unusual K.C.B. (Military) metal and sequin star, silver, gilt and enamels, the reverse with silver pin for wearing
(c) The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, K.C.B. Stall Plate (Sir Miles Nightingall, Lieutenant General in the Army, and Lieutenant-Colonel in the 69th (or South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot. Nominated a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath 2nd January 1815)
(d) Pitt Club badge, silver-gilt, the obverse cameo bust of Pitt polished off (Lieutt. Genl. Sir Miles Nightingale (sic), K.C.B., M.P.) generally good very fine (4) £20000-25000

Miles Nightingall was born on Christmas Day in 1768, and entered the Army as an Ensign in the 52nd Foot on 4 April 1787. He joined the regiment at Madras in July 1788, and served with the Grenadier Company at the capture of Dindigul, and the siege of Palicatcherry in 1790. He was afterwards Brigade Major of the 1st Brigade of Lord Cornwallis’s army, composed of the 36th, 52nd, and 76th regiments, during the whole of the Mysore War, including the siege of Bangalore, the capture of the hill-forts of Severndroog and Ostradroog, and the operations before Seringapatam which ended with peace being signed the following March. In August 1793, he was present at the siege and capture of Pondicherry, where his knowledge of French led to his appointment once again as Brigade Major to the same Brigade, and, after the siege, as Town Major.

Having been promoted to a Company in the 125th Foot in September 1794, he returned home, where he was appointed aide-de-camp to Lord Cornwallis, then commanding the eastern district. He soon obtained a Majority in the 121st Foot, was appointed Brigade Major in the eastern district, and purchased a Lieutenant-Colonelcy in the 119th Foot. Not wishing to remain on home service, Nightingall volunteered for the West Indies, and was placed in command of the old 92nd, with which he was present at the capture of Trinidad in 1797. He was extra aide-de-camp to Sir Ralph Abercromby at Porto Rico, and was afterwards made inspector of foreign corps, which appointment he resigned on account of ill-health.He returned home in October 1797, was transferred as Lieutenant-Colonel to the 38th Foot, and went to San Domingo in December as Adjutant-General with Brigadier-General Maitland. He arranged the evacuation of Port-au-Prince with Mons. Herier, the agent of Toussaint l’Ouverture, and was sent home with despatches.

Cornwallis, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, asked that Nightingall be sent over to command one of the battalions of light companies under Major-General (afterwards Sir) John Moore. In Ireland he became aide-de-camp to Cornwallis and commanded the 4th Battalion of Light Infantry. Early in 1799 he was again employed on a particular service with Major-General Maitland, and sailed with him in the Camilla, man of war, on a mission to America, Jamaica, and St Domingo, and returning to England in July, having successfully accomplished the objective of H.M. Government’s business, was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General of the forces encamped on Barham Down, near Canterbury, which he accompanied in the expedition to the Helser in September 1799. He was present in the actions of the 19th September and 2nd October, but had to return home through ill-health. In January 1800 he was Deputy Adjutant-General to General Maitland in the expedition to Quiberon Bay, and subsequently brought home despatches from Isle Houat. He was appointed Assistant Quartermaster-General of the eastern district in June to October 1801, and was on the staff of Lord Cornwallis, as private secretary, when the latter went to France as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to conclude the Peace of Amiens in 1802.

Nightingall was afterwards transferred to the 51st Foot, and appointed Quartermaster-General to His Majesty’s troops in Bengal. He arrived in Calcutta in August, and became Brevet Colonel in September, 1803. He immediately joined the army in the field on the North West Frontier, under Lord Lake, was present in the action under the walls of Agra on 10 October, and at the siege and capture of that fortress on the 17th of that month. He was also present at the decisive victory gained by Lord Lake at Laswaree on 1 November, and continued with the army until peace was signed with Scindia. He afterwards returned to Calcutta, where he was military secretary to Lord Cornwallis from his arrival until his death at Ghazipore in October 1805, after which Nightingall reverted to the duties of Quartermaster-General.

He returned home in February 1807, and later that year was appointed to a Brigade in the secret expedition under Major-General Brent Spencer, which went to Cadiz, and afterwards joined Sir Arthur Wellesley’s force in Portugal. He commanded the 3rd Brigade, consisting of the 29th and 82nd regiments, at the battles of Roleia and Vimiera in August 1808. The 29th Foot, under Colonel Lake, suffered badly at Roleia, when he inadvertantly led half of the regiment into a narrow gully which ran deep into the French position. Before Lake realised what he was doing, he was 200 yards behind the French front line with a relatively small force and in a cramped position. Heroically, Lake led his men out of the cleft and tried to form, but the entire French left-centre came down on him and British casualties were very severe. At Vimiera, Nightingall’s Brigade was again distinguished, particularly the 29th who led a successful flanking movement against Brennier’s Brigade which resulted in the French commander’s capture. With some 2,000 Frenchmen cut off in a cul-de-sac of hills by the brigades of Ferguson, Nightingall, and Bowes, and the rest of the French army effectively defeated, Sir Harry Burrard refused to execute both the coup de grace on these cornered troops, and Wellesley’s suggestion of an immediate move on Torres Vedras, both of which actions would have made the victory at Vimiera of a much greater significance. Sir Harry, however, declared that the army had done enough for one day and ordered everyone back to their bivouac areas. Even the French trapped by Ferguson were allowed to escape. Burrard was relieved of his command the next day. Nightingall received a vote of thanks from both Houses of Parliament for his services at Roleia and Vimiera, and subsequently received the Gold Medal for those actions.

In December 1808, Nightingall was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief in New South Wales, but a serious illness obliged him to give up the appointment. He held brigade commands at Hythe and Dover in 1809-10, became a Major-General in July 1810, and again joined the army in the Peninsula in January 1811, being appointed to the ‘Highland Brigade’, consisting of the 24th, 42nd, and 79th regiments, in the 1st Division. His Brigade was engaged with the rear of the enemy at Foz D’Arouce on 15 March, and soon afterwards Nightingall assumed command of the entire 1st Division. He continued to command this division during the remainder of his services in the Peninsula, and particularly in the action of Fuentes D’Onor on 5 May, where he was slightly wounded at the close of the action. Some sources, including the Dictionary of National Biography, state that Nightingall received a clasp for this action to add to his Gold Medal, and, indeed, this is represented as part of his arms on his K.C.B. stall plate. However, Nightingall was not entitled to a clasp for Fuentes D’Onor for the very reasons emphatically put forward by Wellington in a letter to Sir Stapylton Cotton in November 1813:

‘If you will advert to the lists for the battle of Fuentes D’Onoro, you will find those only returned who were engaged with musketry. In that battle there was a very heavy cannonade upon the troops, in which many were lost; but the officers of no corps were returned in the list for medals, whose corps had not been engaged with musketry with the enemy. That is the rule, and I cannot depart from it.’ According to Wellington’s despatch, ‘Major-General Nightingall was wounded in the course of the cannonade, but I hope not severely.’

Nightingall left the Peninsula army at Elvas in July that year, having been appointed to a division in India, where he arrived in November 1811; but before he could take up that post he was appointed by Lord Minto to the command-in-chief in Java, where he arrived in October 1813. He organised and commanded a couple of small expeditions against the pirate states of Bali and Boni in Macassar in April and May 1814, both of which were completely successful. Having thus established British authority in the Celebes, he returned to Java. He was promoted to Lieutenant-General in June 1814 and made a K.C.B. in January 1815. He remained in Java until November 1815, when he proceeded to Bombay, having been appointed Commander-in-Chief. He commanded the forces in Bombay, with a seat in council, from February 1816 until 1819, when he returned home overland, through Egypt, his party being accompanied by a Mamaluke as an interpreter who had served Bonaparte for sixteen years. An account of his overland journey, by Captain John Hanson, was published in 1820.

Nightingall was Colonel successively of the 6th West India Regiment and the 49th Foot. He was Member of Parliament for Eye, a pocket borough of the Cornwallis family, in 1820 and again in 1826. He married, at Richmond, Surrey, on 13 August 1800, Florentia, daughter of Sir Lionel Darell, first baronet, and chairman of the East India Company. Sir Miles Nightingall died at Gloucester on 12 September 1829, aged 61.