Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Martinique (Henry Osborn. 63rd Foot.) small nick to cheek on obverse, minor edge nicks, otherwise good very fine, scarce £800-£1,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Robert Barltrop Collection of Medals to the Manchester Regiment.

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Only 59 Military General Service Medals were awarded to the 63rd Foot: 21 with the single clasp Martinique; 12 with the single clasp Guadaloupe; and 26 with both Martinique and Guadaloupe clasps.

Henry Osborn was born at Hunston, near Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, about 1788. He attested for ‘limited service’ in 2nd Battalion 63rd Foot at Bury St. Edmunds on 14 June 1805, and was posted to Captain Frankland’s Company. Shortly thereafter he was posted to the 1st Battalion at the Curragh. The 63rd joined Major General Beresford’s Force which had been ordered to take Madeira. Following the taking of Madeira the 63rd sailed for the West Indies landing at Barbados on 2 February 1808. In January 1809 the 63rd sailed for Martinique, where Private Osborne was wounded and his right leg amputated having been injured ‘by a rope on board a man of war at the attack on Martinique’. He was repatriated to the U.K. in May 1810 to the Depot on the Isle of Wight where he was discharged to become a Chelsea outpatient on 14 November 1810. He died on 23 March 1857 aged about 69.