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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 7

(x) Military General Service 1793-1815, 2 clasps, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz (Elias Phillips, Serjt. 77th Foot), lightly polished, some edge bruising, nearly very fine

Elias Phillips was born in Broadwindsor, Dorset circa 1786, gaining civilian employment as a miller's apprentice. He joined the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot as a drummer in 1798. The regiment saw action in India during the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, and Phillips' pension papers confirm that he served five and half years there. The 77th formed part of the storming party at the Siege of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799, so Phillips may have received a pewter Seringapatam Medal. During the subsequent Polygar Wars, the regiment played a crucial role in securing southern India, enduring attritional jungle warfare against local tribes. Phillips was promoted to Corporal in 1802. When the 77th sailed for England in February 1807, one of its transports, Ganges, sank off the Cape of Good Hope. The East Indiaman St. Vincent managed to evacuate all 209 souls, with no loss of life.

After enduring the Walcheren Campaign of 1809, the 77th embarked for Spain in 1811 and took part in the Battle of El Bodón on 25 September that year. This rear-guard action occurred because Wellington was forced to abandon his siege of Ciudad Rodrigo when Marshal Marmont appeared with 60,000 men. Marmont drove Wellington back into Portugal, but the 5th Foot and 77th Foot, under Major-General Sir Charles Colville, put up a spirited defence on a small ridge called El Bodón. The two regiments, supported by Portuguese artillery, kept back a French infantry division and a large body of cavalry for three hours, buying vital time for the British withdrawal. At one stage the enemy cavalry overran the guns and were driven back with the bayonet - was this the closest Wellington ever came to losing a gun? When the 77th eventually withdrew, the presence of French cavalry forced them to retire across open ground in square, at the mercy of enemy artillery. Phillips went on to serve at the famous sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. He appears on the regiment's Muster of 25 September 1817, taken at Limerick, in the rank of Company and 'Recruiting' Sergeant. Discharged to a Royal Hospital Pension on 24 October 1821, after 23 years and 6 months with the Colours, the 1851 census shows him still living at Sandpit Cottage, Broadwindsor. Phillips had seen the world, but still preferred Dorset!

Provenance:
Glendining's, September 1926 and March 1929.



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Sold for
£1,500

Starting price
£700