Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Lieutenant Henry Kean, 25th Foot, later Major in the 97th Foot

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Martinique, Guadaloupe (Henry Kean, Lieut. 25th Foot) nearly extremely fine £1800-2200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Napoleonic War Medals.

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Provenance: Glendining, December 1984; Spink, May 1998.

Henry Kean was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the 25th Foot on 8 October 1806, being promoted to Lieutenant on 8 July 1808. He served with the 25th Foot at the capture of the islands of Martinique in January and February 1809, and of Guadaloupe in January and February 1810. He also took part in the second expedition to Guadaloupe in 1815, when the French troops renounced their allegiance to Louis XVIII and proclaimed the Emperor Napoleon on 18th June; an expedition was mounted under Lieutenant-General Sir James Leith, and a landing effected on the island on the 8th of August, where after the French troops were speedily forced to surrender prisoners of war.

Kean became Captain on 13 March 1827, and was placed on the half pay of the 60th Foot on 20 July 1830. He returned to full pay as Captain in the 97th Foot on 25 June 1844, and died in the rank of Major at Queenstown, County Cork, on 15 February 1859. His remains were buried beneath a memorial erected by himself in Clifton Street Graveyard, Belfast, in memory of his wife, a son and two daughters, all of whom predeceased him. The Account Book and Journal kept by Lieut. (later Captain) Kean is held by the King’s Own Scottish Borderers Regimental Museum.