Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Waterloo Medal awarded to Private John Durrall, 1st Royal Dragoons, who was severely wounded in the left side at Waterloo where his regiment formed part of Ponsonby’s Union Brigade and ‘rushed in to the second column of the enemy, consisting of about 4,000 men, and after a desperate fight returned with a French eagle’

Waterloo 1815 (John Durrall, 1st or Royal Dragoons.) fitted with original steel clip and contemporary silver bar suspension, a few light marks and a little polished, otherwise good very fine £2,200-£2,600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Robin Scott-Smith Collection of Medals to Casualties.

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John Durrall was born in the Parish of Rustrick, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, and enlisted for the 1st Dragoons at Bristol on Christmas Day 1798, aged 25, for unlimited service. He was discharged on 24 June 1820, in consequence of ‘a wound in the side & being worn out.’ The Surgeon’s report states that he ‘was severely wounded in the left side at the battle of Waterloo - from the effects of which wound he has never perfectly recovered and I am of the opinion that he is altogether worn out & totally unfit for further service. He was admitted as an Out-Pensioner to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, on 5 July 1820, being ‘unfit for service, wounded in the side & worn out,’ and granted a pension of 1s per diem with the intention to reside at Ayr.

Sold with copied discharge papers and his original Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, certificate of admission and instructions as an Out-Pensioner, dated as above, this rather tatty and fragile but a rare survival.