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Auction: 20002 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Space Exploration
Lot: 54

The Crimea Medal awarded to Private W. Magher, 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Dragoon Guards, who probably rode in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade and who later died at Scutari

Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (W. Magher. 5th. Dn. Gds.), officially impressed naming, minor edge bruising, very fine

Ex-Gordon Everson Collection.

William Magher was born in 1821 at Limerick and enlisted for the 5th Dragoon Guards at Cahir on 13 June 1842. A labourer by trade, 5 feet and 10 inches in stature, he likely trained in the old military barracks at Fethard and embarked with the Guards aboard the 3,438-ton steamer Himalaya from Queenstown on 27 May 1854, arriving at Varna on 12 June 1854. Serving as heavy cavalry, the 5th Dragoon Guards took part in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava with Magher probably in the action on that famous day. Further present at Inkermann and Sebastopol, records note Magher's good conduct pay was 'forfeited 13th Sep' (In Search of the Heavy Brigade, refers).

Magher was later sent to the Selimiye Barracks in Scutari - one of 73 officers and men of the Dragoon Guards to be evacuated there during the Crimean War - which was administered by 38 volunteer nurses including a 34-year-old Florence Nightingale who arrived on 4 November 1854. With medicines in short supply, an overworked medical staff and the ever-present threats from cholera and dysentery, William Magher died on 15 February 1855; sold with copied research.


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Sold for
£1,300

Starting price
£480