Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private John Clarke, 4th Foot

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Salamanca, St. Sebastian (John Clarke, 4th Foot.); Waterloo 1815 (John Clarke, 1st Batt. 4th Reg. Foot.) fitted with replacement hinged silver bar suspension, the second with heavy edge bruising and contact marks, fine, the first with light contact marks, otherwise better than very fine (2) £2,400-£2,800

Sotheby, May 1895; Dowell’s, December 1901.

Two Privates of this name are shown on the Waterloo roll, one in Captain Shaw’s No. 1 Company and one in Captain Edgell’s No. 7 Company. Two Privates of this name in the 4th Foot received the M.G.S. medal, the other with 4-clasps being held in the Regimental Museum

John Clark/Clarke is found several times amongst the WO 97 series but only one is shown as a ‘Waterloo Man’, namely John Clarke (2nd) who was born in the Parish of Hadley, near Ipswich, Suffolk, and attested for the 4th Foot at Bury St Edmunds on 7 June 1811, aged 18, for unlimited service, a blacksmith by trade. He served a total of 18 years 52 days including 2 years for Waterloo, and afterwards served in India from April 1819 to April 1826. He was discharged at Gosport on 7 August 1827, being ‘worn out and chronic rheumatism,’ and ‘wounded once’.

Sold with copied discharge papers together with those of another John Clarke from Bodsdale, Suffolk, who served July 1808 to December 1814 in the 4th Foot, and then until April 1818 in 3rd Garrison Battalion, was wounded in left leg and thigh in America but was not present at Waterloo.