Orders, Decorations and Medals

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, St. Sebastian, Nivelle (W. H. Clapp, Depy. Purveyor) contact marks, therefore nearly very fine £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick.

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William Henry Clapp was appointed a Purveyor’s Clerk on 1 February 1809 and a Deputy Purveyor in the Medical Department on 15 October 1812. He served in the Peninsula from 1812 until 1814, being present at the siege of St Sebastian and the battle of Nivelle. Placed on half pay in October 1814, Clapp subsequently served again on full pay between June 1815 and July 1816, and from December 1826 until May 1828, when he was again placed on half pay. He returned to the full pay once more in August 1835 and was stationed at Cork, in Ireland. At this time there were no Purveyors and only five Deputy Purveyors, distributed one at Fort Pitt, two in Ireland, one in Jamaica, and one in Gibraltar. No further appointments were made and the Purveyor’s branch was practically abolished. A Royal Warrant, dated 27 April 1853, however, revived this department, laying down that Purveyors to the Forces should form part of the regular establishment of the Army. Clapp and the other two Deputy Surveyors still serving became Purveyors under this warrant, and others were appointed. He appears to have remained stationed at Cork for the rest of his service, becoming Principal Surveyor in December 1860, and remained in this senior position until his death sometime in 1868. He was the father of William Henry Bant Clapp, later Brigade Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel, who was born at Douglas, Co. Cork, in December 1839.