Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Peninsula pair awarded to Lieutenant M. C. Edwards, Brunswick Oels Light Infantry, the only English officer to serve with the ‘Black Brunswickers’

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Orthes, Toulouse (M. C. Edwards, Ensn. Brunsk. Oeles Lt. Infantry); Brunswick Medal of Honour for the Peninsula Campaign, Carl II, silver, fitted with scroll suspension, this nearly very fine, the first good very fine (2) £3000-3500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Napoleonic War Medals formed by the late R.W. Gould, M.B.E..

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Ex Baldwin 1948 and Hayward 1974.

Michael Charles Edwards was born at Worting House, Longparish, Hampshire, on 30 September 1787, and was the only Englishman to serve with the Brunswickers. Appointed Ensign by the Duke of Brunswick on 28 October 1813, he was later promoted to Lieutenant in December 1813. He served in the South of France in 1814, and was wounded at the battle of Quatre Bras, 16 June 1815. He lived in Brunswick from 1823, apparently unmarried, until his death from apoplexy on 25 June 1857.

The medal of honour for the Peninsula campaigns was instituted by Duke Carl of Brunswick on 30 October 1824, in silver for officers and bronze for other ranks. The medals were struck in Paris and distributed only to those with war service who were still in the service of Brunswick or who were in receipt of reserve pay. The silver medal is very rare. A total of only 39 M.G.S. medals to this regiment, including 16 to officers.

The Brunswick Light Infantry or Brunswick-Oels-Jagers (The Black Brunswickers), was formed from the remnants of a volunteer army which, led by the hard-fighting Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick and nephew of George III, cut its way through French dominated Westphalia to Brake on the Frisian coast and thence by ship to England. Reformed as rifle and hussar regiments, whose black uniforms reproduced that of the former Duke’s standing army, the units were taken into the British service and landed at Lisbon on 8 October 1810.

However, as the war continued and the black-clad ranks were filled by deserters of all nationalities, their early promise faded. Professor Oman in “Wellington’s Army”, London 1913, writes, ‘They were a motley crew, much given to desertion...One great Court-Martial in 1811 sat on ten Brunswick Oeles deserters in a body, and ordered four to be shot and the rest to be flogged.’ But he also adds, ‘...the regiment was full of good shots and bold adventurers.’