Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Barrosa, Toulouse (J. Wilkinson, Royal Staff Corps) suspension a little slack, marks overall, otherwise nearly very fine £800-£1,000

Only 2 M.G.S. medals issued with this two-clasp combination.

John Wilkinson was born in the Parish of Ingleton, Yorkshire, and originally enlisted into the 48th Regiment on 8 October 1803, aged 23. He transferred to the Royal Staff Corps at Rochester, Kent, on 14 March 1804. He was discharged on 12 February 1824, in consequence of ‘being worn out and invalided in the Mauritians.’ His conduct was described as ‘very good’ and he was finally discharged on 26 February 1824.

The Royal Staff Corps was a corps of the British Army which was founded in c. 1800 and disbanded in 1837. It was generally responsible for short-term military engineering works, with the Royal Engineers and Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners remaining responsible for permanent works, but the boundaries between the functions of the corps were blurred. The Royal Staff Corps answered to the Quartermaster-General instead of to the Board of Ordnance. It also seems to have provided personnel for military police and orderly duties. On its disbandment most of its personnel transferred to the Royal Engineers and the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners.

Sold with copied discharge papers and other research saved to CD.