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Auction: 22003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 26

The very rare New Zealand campaign Medal awarded to Private J. Spalding, 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot, who is confirmed as having been previously detached for service at Ballarat at the time of the contentious attack on the Eureka Stockade in December 1854

New Zealand 1845-66, reverse dated '1860-1866' (2976. Jesse Spalding, 1st Bn. 12th Regt.), contact wear overall, minor contact marks and edge bruising, very fine and rare

13 Medals known with these dates.

Jesse Spalding was born at St. James, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk in 1830 and attested at Bury St. Edmunds on 19 September 1851.

The 1st Battalion 12th (East Suffolk) Regiment of Foot was embarked for Australia in the Empress Eugenie in July 1854, where it saw wide and varied service, not least in furnishing convict guards - one batch of “lifers” placed under its care including ‘a Marquess, two Baronets and three who had been in Holy Orders’.

Bizarre though such encounters must have been, it was actually the Battalion’s early employment in the gold fields of Ballarat that led to the most memorable chapter of its sojourn in Australia, namely the assault on the Eureka Stockade in December 1854, where, at the end of the previous month, some 12,000 rebellious “diggers” had assembled in protest against mining licence fees and raised their own flag, “The Southern Cross”. Moreover, under the leadership of an Irishman, Peter Lalor, hundreds of the “diggers” burned their existing licences and swore an oath for the “Victorian Republic”, actions that led to inevitable military intervention.

Thus it was, in the early morning hours of 3 December 1854, that a total force comprising 276 military personnel from the 12th and 40th Regiments, and some police and civilians, closed the rebels’ stockade from a north-westerly direction at dawn. Which side actually fired the opening shots remains a matter of conjecture, but the outcome of the action was certain - the rebels having no chance against such well-armed adversaries and within a quick space of time Lalor and his comrades were overwhelmed, taking casualties of 22 killed or died of wounds and 12 further wounded - reports later surfaced of some of these dead being dreadfully mutilated by shot and sword. The Imperial force, under the command of Captain J. W. Thomas, sustained casualties of four killed and 12 wounded, several of the latter from the 12th Foot.

In the event, when Lalor and fellow rebel ringleaders stood trial before an Irish judge in April 1855, all were acquitted, and the contentious mining licence fees were abolished. Meanwhile, their “Southern Cross” flag, bloodied and trampled, had been saved for posterity and may be found on display in the Ballerat Fine Art Gallery to this day. Over the years, much has been made of the events, including the 1949 production Eureka Stockade, in which Chips Rafferty played Peter Lalor.

Spalding remained in Australia for five years and five months before being posted to New Zealand for seven years and four months. Re-engaging in New Zealand he was appointed Corporal on 7 October 1867 and was finally discharged at Galway on 5 October 1872, also in receipt of an Army L.S. & G.C. Medal; sold together with original Discharge Certificate and typed research.

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Sold for
£3,500

Starting price
£1200

Sale 22003 Notices
'Although the recipient appears present in a number of sources, a number of errors in confirming those present at Eureka exist.'