Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Peninsula Gold Medal awarded to Major-General C. E. Conyers, C.B., 82nd Regiment, for Orthes, 27 February 1814, at which battle he commanded his regiment until severely wounded
Field Officer’s Small Gold Medal, for Orthes (Lieut. Coll. Chas. E. Conyers, 82nd Foot.) fitted with original glass lunettes and original gold ribbon buckle and suspension, this once neatly repaired and no longer swivels, a tiny chip to the upper edge of reverse lunette, otherwise good very fine £12,000-£16,000

Glendining’s, November 1928; J. B. Hayward & Son, c.1975; Buckland Dix & Wood, April 1995; Dixon’s Gazette, Spring 2003; Baldwin’s, September 2016.

Charles Edward Conyers appears to have been born in Castlelyons, County Cork, Ireland. Whilst records are scant concerning his lineage, he is believed to be a scion of the influential Conyers family of Castletown-Conyers, County Limerick. Charles Conyers received his first commission into the British Army in 1794, as a young ensign and soon found himself sent, via nine-months spent in Gibraltar, to the island of St Domingo in the West Indies. As part of the 1st Battalion 82nd Foot, this regiment was intended to assist in the establishment of a protectorate at Port-au-Prince at the request of a number of influential islanders, and to dislodge the increasingly beleaguered French military presence located there, which was suffering under something of a national rebellion against French rule and slavery. Some 832 rank and file of the 82nd Foot were embarked on 10 June 1795, under the command of the young Lieutenant-Colonel George Garnier, arriving at Mole St Nicholas, and proceeding immediately to Port-au-Prince to assist the governor, Major-General Sir Adam Williamson K.B., in a military offensive.
Fighting from the district of Mirebalais, where, for a period of twelve months, the 82nd were the only European troops, Conyers was made lieutenant on 2 September 1795, and was present during a number of engagements with the enemy. The most serious of these attacks was made by the local chief and leader Toussaint L’Ouverture, on the whole line of the frontier, when 40 men of the 82nd, under Lieutenants Manners and Conyers, accompanied by some two thousand five hundred colonial levies, marched at night to assist Fort Serolle, then invested by four-thousand enemy soldiers, who were taken by surprise, subsequently dislodged and then dispersed with considerable casualties. For this particular success Lieutenant Conyers received a personal letter of thanks from Brigadier-General Churchill. Unfortunately, the 82nd lost their Commanding Officer Colonel Garnier (and his brother Henry, Ensign, amongst many) to yellow fever in December 1796, adding to their difficulties.

In 1797 Conyers was placed in command of Fort Desureaux, leading a garrison of forty Europeans and three-hundred colonial troops. He had to repel several assaults during this period, and when Pestel was attacked, he personally led a party against the rear of the enemy, which caused the failure of their enterprise, and for his conduct on this occasion he again received a personal letter of thanks from Brigadier-General Churchill. In March 1798, he was appointed Fort Major of Irois, and during its siege, which lasted for three months, Lieutenant Conyers and two non-commissioned officers of the 82nd were wounded, and the garrison lost more men killed and wounded than its original number of three-hundred. Towards the end of 1798, treaties were made with the hostile chiefs for the evacuation of the island, owing to the constant fighting and the ravages of malaria and yellow fever, the remains of the 82nd were collected at Jaremie, under the command of Lieutenant Conyers, the only remaining officer of the original number which had landed less than three years before at St Domingo. In total, from the original contingent, 22 officers were lost as well as some 1000 men.

After returning to England in late January 1799, he served briefly in the expedition to Quiberon Bay in France, before serving in Minorca for two years with the 82nd Foot, until it was ceded to Spain under the terms of the Peace of Amiens, before being removed to Ireland in 1802. In this year Conyers was promoted to captain on 25 June, and made A.D.C. to Major-General Patrick Wauchope. It appears that he subsequently followed Wauchope to Malta for 1 year and 8 months, and then on to Egypt in 1807 as A.D.C., serving as a member of the staff under General Alexander Mackenzie-Fraser, to confront Ottoman forces in that strategic location. He was present with the British force led by Wauchope at the storming and retreat from Rosetta, as the British forces were shot and sniped from windows in the labyrinthine streets. Here Wauchope was killed and Captain Conyers was wounded with him in the fighting, receiving a severe contusion (presumably from a glancing bullet). His service papers then detail that he was subsequently made A.D.C. to Brigadier-General Sir William Stewart during the siege of Rosetta, before the British and Colonial army’s retreat to Sicily, where Captain Conyers served for 2 years and on the staff as brigade major.
Returning to England after some 9 years abroad in 1809, he was officially promoted to major on 16 February 1809, when he was granted three months’ leave. His service papers inconveniently end at this point, but it does not appear that he took part in the ill-fated Walcheren Expedition in which both battalions of the 82nd Foot served. We do know, however, from the Royal Military calendar that he served on the staff as brigade major in Spain under Wellington. The 82nd saw a great deal of action throughout the war in Spain and France, and perhaps owing to the severity in senior officer casualties suffered amongst the 82nd Foot during this campaign he appears to have been the highest-ranking able-bodied officer of the regiment by late 1813. Continuing into 1814, he saw his finest hour during the operations on the Gave d’Oleron, at Hastingues and Oyer le Gave across the Pyrenees, culminating in the Battle of Orthes on 27 February. Here he led his regiment into action against concentrated French forces in a superior position, and commanded it successfully until he was severely wounded, being awarded the Army Gold Medal, as well as another being awarded to Major Vincent who succeeded him in command. Despite inflicting heavy French casualties, the 82nd suffered only 2 officer casualties, Conyers severely wounded and Lieutenant Drummond wounded, two other ranks killed and 34 wounded, suggesting that Conyers had been conspicuous at the front of his men.
After a brief pause of 4 months, he received the brevet of lieutenant-colonel, and thereafter Conyers was sent to command the 82nd Foot in Canada and North America in the War of 1812. 590 remaining rank and file embarked at Paulliac in Bordeaux on 5 May 1814, travelling to Quebec. Arriving in Canada, they travelled to meet the British army and fight with Canadian and Native Indian Volunteers at Fort Erie on the Niagara Frontier. In particular, it appears that Conyers here commanded the 2nd Battalion 82nd Foot until peace was made with America in March 1815, following the British capture of Washington, and the American victory at New Orleans. The Second Battalion was subsequently reduced and returned to England and Conyers was made lieutenant-colonel on 20 April 1815. He was stationed in Ireland at Birr as commanding officer for two years before returning to England, and whilst at his home in Fulham he married Miss Sarah Teixeria de Sampayo, daughter of the Portuguese consul-general in London (and former inspector general of cavalry in Lisbon) Count Antonio Teixeria de Sampayo, on 14 June 1815. He had three children, Charles Edward Conyers jnr. (himself later an officer in the 2nd Dragoons) and two daughters Anne and Helen Conyers.
Lieutenant-Colonel Conyers served four and a half years at the Cape of Good Hope, and subsequently transferred on half-pay in February 1828 to secure a position as commander and inspecting officer of troops in the Ionian Islands, being principally based in Corfu, where his two daughters were married to British officers. Here for a time he appears to have come into minor conflict with General Sir Charles Napier (concerning a possible move to Cephalonia), who wrote in his memoirs “... the new Resident, Colonel Conyers, was full charged to undo all that he can of my works and could not conceal his zeal”. He went on half-pay in January 1833, and received promotion to colonel in 1837, being appointed a Companion of the Bath in July 1838. He became major-general in November 1846 and was given colonelcy of the 96th Regiment in February 1852. He died at Brighton on 10 August 1855, after more than 60 years’ service and a truly global career.

Sold with a folder of comprehensive research, including copied record of service, gazette entries, extracts from Historical Records of the 82nd Regiment by S. P. Jarvis, a copy of his last Will and Testament, and his obituary notice published in the Morning Post of August 1855.