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Auction: 18003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 12

Military General Service 1793-1814, 4 clasps, Vimiera, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees (P. Lewis, 40th Foot.), some cracking and old minor repairs to clasp block, a couple of heavy edge bruises, nearly very fine

Provenance:
Glendining's, May 1904.
Spink, January 1960.

Peter Lewis served at the Battle of Vimiera (also Vimeiro) on 21 August 1808 as a Private with the 1st Battalion, 40th (2nd Somersetshire) Regiment of Foot. The 40th formed part of Major-General Ferguson's 2nd Brigade in Sir Arthur Wellesley's Anglo-Portuguese army, a force not exceeding 20,000 men. Following his victory at Roleia four days earlier, Wellesley was himself attacked by the main French army under Marshal Junot. Junot had marched north from Lisbon, hoping to block Wellesley's advance south. The two armies met at Vimiera, 32 miles north-east of the Portuguese capital, on 21 August. After launching several furious attacks, the French were driven back with the loss of thirteen guns and several hundred prisoners. Wellesley's victory resulted in the scandalous Convention of Cintra, concluded by Sir Hugh Dalrymple on 30 August. Under the terms of this treaty, Junot's army was repatriated to Bordeaux by the Royal Navy, still under arms.


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Sold for
£900