Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Waterloo 1815 (Philip Bowden 2nd Batt. Coldstream Gds.) fitted with replacement post and rectangular bar suspension, good fine £2,400-£3,000

Philip Bowden was born in the Parish of South Molton, Devon, and attested for the Coldstream Guards at Bristol on 3 May 1810, aged seventeen. According to his discharge papers he ‘served in Spain, Portugal & France from March 1811 to July 1814, and was present at the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, passage of the Nive & Nivelle; at the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Burgos, the sortie from Bayonne; in the Netherlands and France from April 1815 to November 1818; and was present at the battle of Waterloo:- and was wounded at Burgos, Bayonne, and Waterloo.’

At Waterloo he was in Lieutenant-Colonel Hon. J. Walpole’s Light Company and he would therefore have been engaged in the defence of Hougoumont farm and chateau. Philip Bowden lived to claim and receive the M.G.S. medal with clasps for Barrosa, Salamanca and Vittoria. He was discharged on 11 November 1834, suffering ‘regular winter attacks of inflammation of the chest; Breathing short and strength impaired,’ Sold with copied discharge papers.