Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Military General Service 1793-1814, 5 clasps, Maida, Talavera, Vittoria, Pyrenees, St. Sebastian (William Dewson, 20th Foot.) edge bruises, otherwise toned, good very fine £1,600-£2,000

Unique combination of clasps to the M.G.S. medal.

William Dewson was born at Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, and enlisted into the 20th Foot on 19 July 1799, aged 20, a watch-glass maker by trade. He missed Vimiera and Corunna because he was on recruiting duties in Ireland, and by the time he sailed to Lisbon, his battalion was deep into Spain as part of Sir John Moore’s army. He therefore joined the 20th regiment’s convalescents and earned his Talavera clasp as a member of the 1st Battalion Detachments. He was discharged on 24 January 1814, in consequence of ‘a fractured thigh from a Gun Shot Wound received in the Storming of San Sebastian (Spain) on the 31st Augt. 1813.’ He died at Wolverhampton on 15 September 1855, aged 76.

Sold with full muster details and discharge papers, all copied to disc.