Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Waterloo medal awarded to Corporal William Emmott, Royal Horse Guards, appointed Quartermaster in the Regiment in 1828, and subsequently Captain and Adjutant of the Worcestershire Yeomanry Cavalry with whom he was actively engaged during the Bristol Riots of 1831 and against the Chartists in 1842, when he himself captured a leading Chartist Arthur O’Niel at a riot near Dudley

Waterloo 1815 (Corpl. William Emmott, Royal Horse Guards.) fitted with contemporary replacement silver clip and bar suspension, latter part of rank erased, edge bruising and contact marks, fine and better £3,600-£4,400

William Emmott was born in the Parish of Trawdon, near Colne, Lancaster, and enlisted into the Royal Horse Guards on 12 March 1811, aged 20. He served with the Blues in the Peninsula at the battles of Vittoria and Toulouse, and as a Corporal at Waterloo. He was commissioned as Quartermaster in the Royal Horse Guards on 25 September 1828, and retired on half-pay on 31 December 1831. He was afterwards drill Sergeant to Lord Villiers’ Bicester Troop of the Oxford Yeomanry Cavalry before being appointed Captain and Adjutant of the Worcester Yeomanry Cavalry by Lord Plymouth, serving in that capacity until his death on 14 April 1865, During this period the WYC was very actively engaged with the frequent riots and protests of the times, including the Bristol, Worcester and Staffordshire riots of 1831 and the Chartist riots of 1842, much of which is described in a letter of petition from Emmett in February 1859 (copy sold with the lot). Captain Emmott was buried at Tardebigge, the funeral being attended by Lord Lyttelton, the Lord Lieutenant, the Bromsgrove and Redditch Companies of Rifle Volunteers, and 450 of the Worcester Yeomanry Cavalry with the Band, under command of Lord Dudley.

Sold with research including a copy of his original Commission as Quartermaster and a typed copy of a 6-page letter written by Emmott describing the events following the battle of Vittoria [dated 27 October 1813], these both being held by the Household Cavalry Museum. Emmot’s two-clasp M.G.S. medal is held by the National Army Museum, Chelsea, London. A fine portrait of Captain Emmott mounted on his favourite charger by Sir Francis Grant can be found in the history of the Worcester Yeomanry Cavalry.