Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, St. Sebastian, Toulouse (T. Breakell, Gunner, R. Arty.) edge bruising and contact wear, nearly very fine £800-£1,200

Provenance: John Darwent Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, April 2004.

Thomas Breakell was born in Whittingham, Lancashire, circa 1791, and attested for the Royal Artillery on 24 May 1812. He served in Captain Michell’s Company, 9th Battalion R.A. in Portugal, Spain and France until 1 August 1814, when he embarked in H.M.S. Royal Oak for service in North America. Landing at the Patuxent River he was present at the Potomac River, Mobile and Dauphine Island. He returned to the U.K. in the Royal Oak and proceeded to the Low Countries, where he served at Ostend and Brussels from 11 June 1815. He was not present at Waterloo and, after returning to the U.K., was stationed at Woolwich until his discharge on 25 January 1819. In later life he lived in Preston, Lancashire, and was present at the Wellington Memorial Service at Preston on 18 November 1852.

Sold with copied research which indicates that he received a severe wound in the head at Barcelona.