Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A Crimean war group of four awarded to Lieutenant-General Charles Bearing, Coldstream Guards, who was severely wounded by a round shot at the battle of the Alma and had his left arm amputated at the shoulder

Crimea 1854-56, 2 clasps, Alma, Sebastopol (Captn. Charles Baring. Coldm. Guards.) naming officially engraved by Hunt & Roskell; France, Second Empire, Legion of Honour, 5th Class breast badge, silver, gold and enamels, considerable damage to white enamel arms, both centres dented with total loss of blue enamel; Ottoman Empire, Order of the Medjidie, 5th Class breast badge, silver, gold and enamel, red enamel chipped on crescent suspension, the reverse with cartouche of KRÈTLY No.46 Palais Royal Paris; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, contemporary Tailor’s copy by ‘J.B.’, unnamed, the last three all fitted with silver ribbon buckles, unless otherwise described nearly very fine (4) £800-£1,000

Charles Baring was born on 26 June 1829, son of Major Henry Bingham Baring and Lady Augusta Brudenell (sister of the 7th Earl of Cardigan, later of Balaklava fame). Educated at Eton, he joined the Coldstream Guards as an Ensign and Lieutenant by purchase on 2 July 1847. Six years later he became a Lieutenant and Captain by purchase on 29 April 1853. He served in the Eastern campaign of 1854 and was severely wounded at the Battle of the Alma on 20 September, by a round shot which shattered his left arm causing it to be amputated at the shoulder. Invalided to England in October 1854, he was later Mentioned in Despatches (12 December) and made Brevet Major. On 18 May 1855, he was among those presented with their Crimean medals by Queen Victoria on Horse Guards Parade. Baring returned to Crimea in June 1855, where he took part in the siege of Sebastopol; he was invalided back to England that autumn, however, due to fever, but by the end of the year, on 21 December, he had become Lieutenant-Colonel by purchase. In addition to the Crimean and Turkish medals, Baring was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour (London Gazette 1 May 1857) and awarded the 5th Class of the Medjidie (London Gazette 2 March 1858). He became Colonel in command of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards, and retired on half-pay on 13 August 1872; he was named Major-General on 25 August 1878, and gained the rank of Honorary Lieutenant-General on 1 July 1881. He was an avid yachtsman and one of the original council members of the Yacht Racing Association, as well as being a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron.

Baring’s importance to sailing and to Cowes, Isle of Wight, is best summed up in the following extract from the history of the Island Sailing Club:

‘The Club was really planned and owes its being to General Charles Baring, late of Nubia House, Cowes, who lost his arm in the Crimea and was the first Commodore. The General was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and saw the need for democratic amateur sailing and racing - and set about to found the Club. He must have been a very clever prophet of what was wanted in the Solent and he got together all the keen small boat sailors when there were practically no small boats racing in the Cowes area of the Solent. In those days it was only large and expensive yachts that were catered for in the regattas and the small man did not have a look in at all. The General set out to see that the small man did count and could have his own Racing and Club facilities for it. The meeting to form the Club was held on the 2nd March 1889 at the Marine Hotel near the present Club House’.

An eminent and wealthy Victorian born into the higher levels of society, Charles Baring was a democrat at heart, and well respected by all. He died at Wilton Place in London on February 7 1890 at the age of 60.

Sold with a second Crimea medal, 3 clasps, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol, with later engraved naming (Lieut. C. Baring. 1st Bn. Coldm. Gds.) most rivets lacking or broken, together with copied research.