Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Waterloo Medal awarded to Surgeon Francis Burton, 4th Foot, later Surgeon attached to the 66th Foot at St Helena, where he was present at Napoleon’s death on 31 March 1821, presided over the subsequent post-mortem autopsy, and is renowned for having made Napoleon’s death mask

Waterloo 1815 (Surgeon Burton, 4th Regiment Foot.) fitted with original steel clip and silver straight bar suspension, nearly extremely fine £5,000-£7,000

Francis Burton was born in Ireland in 1784 and, prior to being commissioned to the 5th Garrison Battalion on 5 March 1807, was assistant surgeon to the North Devon Militia, his subsequent appointments being assistant surgeon 36th Foot, 10 March 1808; surgeon 4th Foot, 9 September 1813; half-pay, 10 December 1818; full-pay surgeon, 66th Foot, 16 December 1819; M.D., Edinburgh 1820; surgeon 12th Lancers, 30 June 1825.

Burton served in the Peninsula in 1808-09, was present in the Walcheren Expedition later in 1809, and served again in the Peninsula, with the 36th Foot from March 1811 to October 1813, including the siege and battle of Salamanca; and with the 1/4th Foot from November 1813 to January 1814, including actions in the Pyrenees, Battle of the Nive and the investment of Bayonne. He afterwards accompanied the 1/4th Foot to North America in 1814 and was present with the battalion at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Burton was one of the five army medical officers present at the autopsy of Napoleon on St Helena, where he had only arrived, as surgeon of the 66th Foot, on 31 March 1821. He was present at Napoleon’s death on 5 May 1821, and features in the famous painting by Baron Charles Steuben, based on accounts of the event. Burton not only presided over the post-mortem but is also renowned for having made Napoleon’s death mask. Burton died in London on 24 October 1828.

Note: Some historical accounts contend that Dr François Carlo Antommarchi, Napoleon’s personal physician but both disliked and distrusted by Napoleon, cast the original parent mould, which would later be used to reproduce bronze and additional plaster copies. Other records, however, indicate that Dr Francis Burton, the surgeon attached to the 66th Foot at St. Helena, presided at the emperor’s autopsy and during that post-mortem procedure cast the original mould. Antommarchi obtained from his British colleagues a secondary plaster mould from Burton’s original cast and with that second-generation mould, Antommarchi in France reportedly made further copies of the death mask in plaster as well as in bronze. There have been a good number of books and articles written over the years about Napoleon’s death masks and it seems fairly conclusive that Antommarchi’s mould was indeed a copy taken from Burton’s original. Original casts from either mould are very rare and most reside in museums around the world. In 2013, one of the last remaining original death masks taken by Burton was made the subject of a U.K. export ban after selling at auction for £175,000.