Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Light Brigade charger’s medal awarded to Sergeant John Pyne, 17th Lancers, who was wounded at Balaklava

Crimea 1854-56, 4 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Corpl. J. Pyne, 17th Lancers) officially impressed naming, the first and third clasps rather crude by comparison and possibly contemporary copies, light contact marks, otherwise better than very fine £4000-5000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Kuriheka Collection of British Medals.

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Ex Debenham’s May 1905, and Glendining’s December 1909 and April 1923.

John Pyne was born in the Parish of Clougibbon, near Mitchelstown, County Cork, and attested for the 17th Lancers at Dublin on 16 July 1847, aged 20 years. He was promoted to Corporal on 31 January 1852, but reduced to Private on 7 December 1854, being promoted again to Corporal on 1 October 1855, and to Sergeant on 20 March 1856, in which rank he was discharged at Dublin on 27 November 1856, being ‘totally unfit for further service’. He rode as a Corporal in the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, where he was wounded slightly, presumably the ‘cut on left cheek’ recorded in his discharge papers. John Pyne was a member of the Balaklava Commemoration Society in 1879 but nothing further is known of him. Sold with copy discharge papers.