Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The mounted group of three miniature dress medals representative of those worn by Private J. Lamb, 13th Light Dragoons

Crimea 1854-56, 4 clasps, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol; Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, all mounted from a triple top silver riband buckle; together with his original Soldier’s Account Book, the front page inscribed to No. 1406 James Lamb, Thirteenth Light Dragoons, with usual entries for monthly settlements and clothing allowances for the period January 1856 to December 1870, and additional details under ‘Soldier’s Name and Description’ and ‘Services Abroad’, the latter confirming that Lamb was ‘Present at Alma, Balaklava (wounded), Inkermann and Sebastopol’; also details of his marriage in April 1858 to Mary and a list of children’s birth dates, remnants of velvet tie, lacking back cover and pages torn in places or worn overall, written content generally good, the medals good very fine (3) £300-£400

Dix Noonan Webb, April 2003 (Account Book only).

James Lamb was born near Falmouth, Cornwall and enlisted in the 13th Light Dragoons in Edinburgh in August 1850, aged 26 years.

Present at the charge of the Light Brigade on 25 October 1854, when he was wounded and had his horse killed, Lamb distinguished himself by assisting in the rescue of Captain Webb of the 17th Lancers, in company with Corporal Malone of his own regiment and Sergeant Berryman of the 17th. Both of these N.C.Os were subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross, while Lamb’s bravery remained unrecognised - he afterwards stated that he drew lots for the decoration with Malone and lost.

Present at the first Balaklava Banquet in October 1875 and a member of the Balaklava Commemoration Society from 1879, Lamb regularly attended subsequent annual dinners, in addition to signing the Loyal Address in 1887. And in October 1891 The Strand magazine published his account of the charge, together with a portrait.

Lamb died from heart failure and senile decay in Wandsworth, London in June 1911, leaving his 88 year old widow Mary with ‘not a friend in the world and a total income of 8s. 6d. per week’. It was the Coroner’s hope that the ‘poor old lady would be taken care of in some institution’. Interestingly, Lummis and Wynn state that Mary had been with Lamb in the Crimea, prior to their marriage in April 1858, a fact supported by the birth of a daughter, Anne, at Newbridge back in November 1851 - the year 1856 has been crossed out in pencil in the list of children’s birth dates in Lamb’s Account Book.

Sold with copied research including a photographic image of the recipient.