Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Crimea War campaign service pair awarded to Sergeant H. G. Wickham, 13th Light Dragoons, who received a severe lance wound during the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava in October 1854

Crimea 1854-56, 4 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (H. G. Wickham, 13th Lt. Dragoons), officially impressed naming; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue (Corporal H. G. Wickham, 13th Light Dragoons), regimentally impressed naming, this last fitted with claw and swivel-loop suspension, the ‘Sebastopol’ clasp lacking right hand side lug, light contact marks and somewhat polished, otherwise generally about very fine (2) £8,000-10,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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Harry George Wickham was born in Bromley, Kent, the son of a local policeman, about 1834. At the time of his enlistment in the 13th Light Dragoons in October 1852, he was employed as an Assistant Engineer in the London and South Western Railway Company’s sheds at Hampton Court.

Embarked for the Crimea with his regiment, he was present in the famous Charge of the Light Brigade in October 1854, during which he received a severe lance wound. By June 1856 he was on garrison duties in Ireland and between August and October 1857 he was attached to the 4th Military Train, in which detachment he was advanced to Corporal. Latterly employed on recruiting duties in Leicester, he was finally discharged in the rank of Sergeant in October 1864.

Wickham joined the Balaklava Commemoration Society in 1879 (of which he was onetime a Committee Member), attended the annual dinner in 1890 and, in July of the same year, was present at the Balaklava Fete held at Olympia. He had, however, fallen on hard times, and although granted £60 by the Patriotic Fund Committee (to be paid over three installments), he died in abject poverty at his residence in Heath Road, Clapham, London in June 1892, aged 56 years. As a result, he was buried in an unmarked common grave in the South Metropolitan Cemetery at West Norwood - a sad ending best summarised by the Clapham Observer of 18 June 1892: ‘That is how England treats its heroes!’

Sold with two original portrait photographs, one of Wickett about the time of the Crimea, in uniform, by the studio of Charles F. Treble of Lavender Hill, London, and the other of him in old age, wearing his Crimea Medals, by the studio of A. & G. Taylor of Queen Victoria Street, London; together with a group photograph of “The Survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade”, by Boning & Small of Baker Street, London, taken at the Balaklava Fete held at Olympia on 2 July 1890, and including Wickett, framed and glazed in contemporary titled mount; and an original glass negative of another portrait of him in uniform, circa 1870.

Also sold with a Dek Military Model 2-piece lead soldier display, on wooden mount, one figure being Wickham and the other a wounded comrade.

Provenance: ex-John Tamplin collection, August 1977 (private purchase): ‘Wickham was married and certainly had one daughter, who sold his medals, together with a number of photographs, in January 1952, to a jeweller from whom I bought them in the same month’ (John Tamplin’s notes refer).