A particularly fine Kaffir War, Crimean War and Indian Mutiny campaign group of five awarded to Captain G. Robertson, who witnessed extensive conflict overseas with the 12th (East Suffolk) and 95th (Derbyshire) Regiments of Foot and was decorated by the Turkish authorities having endured considerable hardship in the trenches before Sebastopol

South Africa 1834-53 (Ensign G. Robertson, 12th. Regt.); Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (G-Robertson- Lieut. 95th. Foot.) contemporary engraved naming; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Central India (Lieut. G. Robertson, 95th. Regt.); Ottoman Empire, Order of the Medjidie, Fifth Class breast badge, silver, gold and enamel, privately engraved to reverse ‘Lieut. G. Robertson. 95th. Regt.’, minor red enamel loss to crescent suspension; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue (Lieut. G Robertson. 95th. Regt.) contemporary engraved naming, all five fitted with period unmarked silver top wearing pins, with matching contemporary miniature awards, these mounted from Hunt & Roskell silver riband buckles, all contained within an attractive two-drawer silk and velvet lined fitted case with brass lock and key, named to top lid in gilt lettering ‘Captain Robertson, 95th Derbyshire Regiment’, contact marks to first and second, these good fine, the remainder very fine and better (5) £1,600-£2,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals - The Property of a Gentleman.

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George Robertson was born in Montreal, Canada, on 30 September 1831, and attested for the 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot as Ensign by purchase on 17 June 1851, aged 19 years and 8 months. Posted to South Africa, he served during the Eighth Kaffir War from 1851 to 1853 in operations against Xhosa and Khoikhoi forces. The campaign later became regarded as one of the most bitter and brutal in the series of Xhosa wars, the tide turned by the successful deployment of British reinforcements via Cape Town, including drafts of the 12th Foot.

Exchanged into the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment of Foot 5 November 1854, Robertson was promoted Lieutenant (without purchase) on 9 February 1855, and joined the Regiment before Sebastopol from 26 January 1855 to 8 September 1855. His experiences during this time were later detailed in 1929 by Colonel H. C. Wylly, C.B., in Extracts from the History of the Sherwood Foresters, Notts & Derby. 95th Regiment, Volume 2:
‘Another officer of the 95th whose siege diary is available for reference, was Lieut. Robertson, who joined the Service Companies in January, 1855, and he gives the following figures: “The admissions for disease to hospital in December, 1854, amounted to 48 per cent of the strength present; in January, 1855, to 57 per cent, and the deaths exceed 8 per cent; in February, to 39 per cent; and in March to 37 per cent, and the deaths to 19 per cent of the strength present. This is accounted for by the men being, in the fullest sense of the word, ‘worn out’ by numerous and continuous hardships previously endured.”’

Robertson was later keen to point out the attachment of officers to other regiments for trench duty, such was the impact of disease and state of exhaustion in the British Army. On 23 February 1855, The Times published a letter from a Captain of the 95th, written on the second of that month, in which he adds: ‘The weather has been very severe and the Regiment has, I am sorry to say, suffered greatly; on some days we buried as many as five out of our thinned ranks. In fact we are now very nearly hors de combat... Another fortnight will, I fear, reduce us altogether.’

Briefly returned home to England on 18 June 1856, just a couple of months before his 25th birthday, Robertson landed in India with his Regiment on 1 November 1857. He served with the 95th Foot throughout the Mutiny, including the Siege and Capture of Kotah under Major-General Roberts, C.B., on 30 March 1858; early that morning three columns, each of 500 men, attempted to breach the town’s walls, the lead assault being led by Lieutenant-Colonel Raimes of the 95th Foot. The victory came via a clever flanking movement which resulted in the capture of 70 guns of various calibres and a gallant charge by the 8th Hussars. Major-General Roberts, in thanking the Brigade, was keen to note that he had been in field fights, he had been in storming parties, but he had never seen men go steadier: ‘It was more like men upon a parade, or on a field day, than men who were facing death.’

Advanced Captain by purchase on 16 December 1859, Robertson returned home and exchanged to the 2nd Battalion, 25th (King’s Own Scottish Borderers) Regiment of Foot by purchase on 18 May 1860. Confirmed upon the recipient’s Army Service Record as awarded the Turkish Order of Medjidie, he left the Army a short while later and does not appear in Hart’s Army List of 1865.

Sold with copied Service Record and a small contemporary envelope containing original silk ribands for the full-size awards.