Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Waterloo 1815 (Captain A. C. Craufurd, Volunteer 12th Light Dragoons.) fitted with original steel clip and ring suspension, some light marks, otherwise better than very fine £3,600-£4,600

Provenance: ‘His Waterloo medal was for long in the Seaforth collection’ (The Waterloo Roll Call by Charles Dalton refers).

Alexander Charles Craufurd was born on 20 June 1794, son of Sir James Gregan-Craufurd, 2nd Baronet, and Maria Theresa Gage, and was a nephew of General Robert ‘Black Bob’ Craufurd. Together with his older brother, Thomas, he entered the army as an Ensign in the 3rd Foot Guards, by purchase, on 28 May 1811, aged 17 years. His Father purchased for him a Lieutenancy in the 10th Light Dragoons on 9 December 1813, and he served with this regiment in the latter stages of the Peninsula war, being present at the battle of Toulouse. He further purchased a Captaincy in the Ceylon Regiment on 9 June 1814, but was placed on half-pay in 1815 in consequence of being attached to the 12th Light Dragoons by the Duke of Wellington, with the permission of the Commander-in-Chief, and, in the capacity of Volunteer, served at Waterloo with that regiment.

During the battle the 12th Light Dragoons formed part of Vandeleur’s Light Cavalry Brigade. Along with the 16th Light Dragoons, the 12th were ordered to charge down the slope, but no further, to support the withdrawal of the Union Brigade. During this brilliant charge, the 12th, who were initially fired upon by Pack’s Brigade, crashed into the French 46th Regiment causing them to break. Captain Barton of the 12th later wrote:

‘This attack was successful and threw the enemy into disorder, who retreated in the greatest confusion followed by the regiment till we were stopped by their standing columns of reserves on the opposite side of the ravine. During the whole of this time an indiscriminate fire was kept up by the French Artillery on the Regiment as well as on their own retreating battalions. We were in considerable confusion, being mixed up with the enemy’s broken infantry, suffering at the same time from heavy cannonade.’

Like the Union Brigade, but unlike the rest of Vandeleur’s Brigade, the 12th had charged too far and suffered very severely, in particular during the withdrawal when they became engaged with the French 3rd and 4th Lancers, losing almost one third of their strength in ten minutes. Total casualties to the regiment were 111 killed or wounded.

After the battle and while looking for his colonel, Ponsonby, who was severely wounded, Captain Craufurd came across the body of his brother, Thomas, by then a Captain in the 3rd Foot Guards, who had been killed at Hougoumont. He afterwards found Colonel Ponsonby, whose life he helped save.

Exchanging to full pay as a Captain in the 12th Light Dragoons in October 1821, Craufurd was promoted to Major in the Army in October 1821. This latter promotion was evidently the result of his representation to the King, in August of that year, when he pointed out that ‘the Duke of Wellington and Colonel Ponsonby, with whose regiment (the same in which I now command a troop) I served as a Volunteer at the battle of Waterloo, both desired me to refer to them on any occasion where their testimony could be of use to me.’

Craufurd purchased a Majority in the Cape Corps of Cavalry in August 1824, and removed to the 8th Royal Irish Hussars in June 1825. He finally purchased a Lieutenant-Colonelcy in the 94th Foot on 10 June 1826, but was placed on half-pay the following day from ill-health. He married, 23 July 1818, Lady Barbara Coventry, daughter of the 7th Earl of Coventry. Lieutenant-Colonel Craufurd, who since the death of his brother Thomas, was now heir to the Baronetcy, died without issue on 12 March 1838, aged 43.

Sold with copied statement of services together with various Commander-in-Chief’s memorandums and other research.