Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private W. Wiler, 1st Battalion 60th Rifles

Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Mooltan, Goojerat (W. Wiler, 1st Bn. 60th R. Rifles) clasps refitted; India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, North West Frontier (2781 W. Wiler, 1st Bn. 60th Rifles) edge bruising, contact marks, especially to the first which is also worn through polishing; second nearly very fine (2) £400-500

William Wiler was born in Gedling, Nottingham in 1828. A Labourer by occupation, he enlisted into the 2nd Battalion 60th Rifles at Nottingham on 16 February 1846 with a bounty of £3.10s.0d. Transferred to the 1st Battalion in March 1847, Wiler was posted to India with the battalion in January 1847. Wiler’s draft embarked on the HEICS Atalanta, the ship becoming wrecked on its voyage from Bombay to Karachi. Surviving this, Wiler went on to serve in the Second Sikh War at Mooltan and Goojerat. Then he served in Lieutenant-Colonel Bradshaw’s expedition to Yusafzai to collect fines from the village of Sanghao, December 1849; in the storming of the village of Pullee in Zermundee, 14 December 1849; and the expedition against the Kohat Pass Afridis, February 1850. Wiler was invalided to Bombay in November 1852 and thence to England, where he was discharged on 9 August 1853 due to chronic hepatic disease and pulmonic disease. With copied service papers and other research in a folder. The ‘North West Frontier’ clasp one of only 55 to the battalion.

For his son’s medals, see lot 579.