Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Waterloo Medal awarded to Private T. Bridge, 2nd Battalion, 59th Foot, who was lost in the wreck of the Sea-Horse in Tramore Bay, near Waterford, Ireland, on 30 January 1816

Waterloo 1815 (Thomas Bridge 2nd Batt. 59th Reg. Foot.) with original steel clip and split ring suspension, toned, nearly extremely fine, rare to a Sea-Horse casualty £2,000-£2,400

Provenance: Sotheby, February 1921; Glendining’s, June 1925 (£2, 12s.); Ernest Blair Collection, Glendining’s, July 1937; Glendining’s, November 1968 (£32).

Illustrated in Sudden Death - Sudden Glory, A history of the 59th Regiment 1793-1830.

Thomas Bridge attested for the 59th Foot and served with the 2nd Battalion in Captain Belche’s Company during the Waterloo campaign, 16-18 June 1815. He subsequently died on board the Sea-Horse when that ship, carrying members of the Battalion from Ramsgate to Cork, was wrecked in a storm in Tramore Bay, near Waterford, Ireland, on 30 January 1816, killing all but 30 of the 394 people on board. The tragic loss of the transport ship Sea-Horse was a notable example of military discipline in desperate circumstances. It is said that ‘There was no hope for the soldiers. They stood firm on deck and the only sounds, besides the raging of the storm, were the cries of those who were washed off and the prayers of the rest.’