Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private Donald Ross, 79th Foot, one of 12 men in the regiment to receive the clasp for Talavera where they served with the 1st Battalion of Detachments; he received a ‘severe bayonet wound in the mouth & also wounded in the left leg by a splinter from the Palisadoes at Burgos’

Military General Service 1793-1814, 9 clasps, Corunna, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Toulouse (Donald Ross, 79th Foot); Waterloo 1815 (Donald Ross 1st Batt. 79th Reg. Foot.) fitted with original steel clip and contemporary rectangular silver bar suspension; 79th Foot Order of Merit, first reverse with English sword hilt, silver, for 12 years service, unnamed, fitted with steel clip and silver bar suspension, light contact marks, generally very fine and rare (3) £4,000-£6,000

Lieutenant Fraser’s Collection 1913; Needes Colection 1940; Elson Collection, Glendining’s, September 1963.

Only 12 clasps issued to the 79th Foot for Talavera where a number of officers and men of the regiment, left behind on the retreat to Corruna, served with the 1st Battalion of Detachments.

Donald Ross was born in the Parish of Largs, near Dornoch, County Sutherland, and was enlisted into the 79th Foot at Edinburgh on 10 October 1808, aged 18, for unlimited service. He served a total of 14 years 250 days, including 2 years’ allowance for Waterloo, and was discharged at Dublin on 26 June 1821, in consequence of ‘protracted chronic disease of the liver & severe chronic rheumatism & being completely worn out.’ His conduct was stated to have been ‘Good’ and that he ‘Served in the Sieges of Flushing in 1809 & Burgos in 1812, in the Campaigns in Holland 1809, Peninsula in 1810, 11, 12 & 1813; South of France in 1814, Netherlands & France in 1815, 16, 17, & 1818, and was present in the actions of Busaco, Salamanca in 1812, Pyreness, Nivelle & Nive in 1813, Toulouse in 1814, Quatre Bras & Waterloo in 1815. Received a severe bayonet wound in the mouth & also wounded in the left leg by a splinter from the Palisadoes at Burgos.’

Sold with copied discharge papers.