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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 4

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Talavera, Albuhera (S. Fordham, 3rd Foot.), minor edge nicks and contact marks, very fine

Provenance:
Glendining's, May 1963.

Samuel Fordham, a native of Orwell, Cambridgeshire, was born in 1785 '...on the march in Portugal'. He served during the Peninsular War as a Private with Captain W. C. Campbell's Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd (East Kent) Regiment of Foot. 'The Buffs' received a severe mauling at the Battle of Albuhera (clasp) on 16 May 1811. Part of Lieutenant-Colonel Colborne's Brigade, the Buffs were charged repeatedly by elite Polish lancers. Ensign Latham famously saved the Colours, despite losing an arm and receiving numerous stab-wounds from lances. This incident is depicted in a magnificent piece of mess silver, part of the Buffs Collection in Canterbury. Fordham was invalided to Lisbon by Medical Board in the Spring of 1813. He was discharged at Chelsea in May 1816, upon which occasion his papers state: '...slight wound left shoulder & injured left leg'; sold together with frayed original riband and copied research.

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Sold for
£2,200