Special Collections
Create new listThe 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot was raised in 1741 and saw extensive service in North America during the latter half of the 18th Century and early 19th Century, including in the Caribbean, and subsequently took part in the Crimean War. It amalgamated with the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot in 1881 to become the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, and saw further service in the Egyptian campaign and in South Africa during the Boer War, as well as extensive service in both the Great War and the Second World War. Following the Second World War the Regiment amalgamated successively with the Somerset Light Infantry to form the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry in 1959; with the Durham Light Infantry, the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, and the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry to form the Light Infantry in 1968; and then with the Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry, the Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire, and Wiltshire Light Infantry, and the Royal Green Jackets to form The Rifles in 2007.
A C.M.G. group of three awarded to Captain J. K. G. T. Spencer Churchill, 46th Regiment of Foot, later Colonial Secretary of the Bahama Islands
The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s breast badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with integral silver-gilt riband buckle; Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (J. Spencer Churchill. 46th. Regt.) Hunt & Roskell engraved naming, with top silver riband buckle; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, a contemporary tailor’s copy by ‘JB’ (J. Spencer Churchill. 46th. Regt.) engraved naming, with top silver riband buckle, minor enamel damage to reverse top arm of CMG, edge nicks and light contact marks to the Crimea, therefore very fine and better (3) £800-£1,000
This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 46th Foot and its Successor Units.
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Crimea pair ex- John Laidacker Collection; the CMG acquired later.
C.M.G. London Gazette 26 June 1902: John Kemys George Thomas Spencer Churchill, Esq., Colonial Secretary of the Bahama Islands.
John Kemys George Thomas Spencer Churchill was born in London on 27 December 1835, the second son of Lord Charles Spencer Churchill, and the grandson of the 5th Duke of Marlborough, and was educated at Winchester. He was commissioned Ensign in the 46th Regiment of Foot on 15 December 1854, and was promoted Lieutenant on 9 March 1855, serving with the Regiment in the Crimea from 7 July 1855 until the peace. He exchanged into the 86th Regiment of Foot on 178 May 1860, and was promoted Captain on 1 May 1866. He retired by sale of his commission on 4 November 1867.
Spencer Churchill subsequently joined the Colonial Civil Service, and was appointed to the Executive Council of the Leeward Island on 25 June 1879. He successively served as President of the British Virgin Island; Governor of Montserrat; Commissioner of the Presidency of St. Christopher and Nevis; and latterly as Colonial Secretary for the Bahama Island from 24 April 1895. Appointed a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 1902, he retired in 1906, and died in Falmouth, Cornwall, on 9 August 1913. He was the first cousin (twice removed) of the future Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.
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