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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 5

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Talavera, Albuhera (M. McGuirk, 7th Foot.), officially re-impressed naming, scratches to obverse, very fine

Provenance:
Glendining's, May 1919, July 1953 (Ex-Oakley Collection).

Matthew McGuirk served as a Private with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers) at the Battle of Talavera on 27-28 July 1809. As part of Brigadier-General Campbell's 4th Division, the 7th held Wellington's centre against General Leval's 3rd Division, composed largely of German troops from Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine. Leval began his attack at 2.30 p.m. on 28 July. An olive grove disrupted his formation, so that by the time his troops ascended the Pajar de Vergara ridge, all cohesion had been lost. The 7th Foot fell upon Leval's right flank, which broke and fled. The rest of Leval's division fell back to avoid being isolated. Six French guns were captured and more than 700 casualties inflicted. The 7th Foot suffered 65 killed and wounded.

At the Battle of Albuhera (clasp) on 16 May 1811, Sir William Beresford's combined British, Spanish and Portuguese force of over 35,000 men faced a 24,000-strong French army under Marshal Soult. Beresford had been laying siege to the strategic border town of Badajoz. Leaving Major-General Lowry Cole's 4th Division - including the 7th Foot - to maintain the siege, Beresford marched south to confront Soult. A bitter engagement followed, in which the British alone lost 984 killed, 2,993 wounded and 570 missing. Cole's Division marched to the sound of the guns, reinforcing the beleaguered Brigades of Colborne and Houghton. As Soult retreated during the afternoon, the 7th Foot pursued Werlé's Brigade and routed two columns.


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Sold for
£1,500