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Auction: 23003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 14

Military General Service 1793-1814, 8 clasps, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes D'Onor, Cuidad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, Orthes, Toulouse (W. Grant. Serjt 88th Foot.) small edge bruise and a couple of light contact marks, otherwise very fine

Provenance:
Watters Collection 1913.
Glendinings March 1927.
Hayward June 1975.
Bonhams October 2003.

William Grant was born at Gilboth, Leicestershire in 1776 and enlisted into the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) on 4 October 1796. Participating in the ill-fated invasion of the River Plate, along with most of the battalion he was taken prisoner at Buenos Ayres in July 1807 - undoubtedly not helped by an order for several companies to remove the flints from their muskets before making the attack, thereby leaving them unable to physically fire upon the enemy.
Surviving that bungled encounter, the battalion was back in Britain by November that year and in March 1809 they were sent to Portugal for the Peninsular Campaign. Seeing hard fighting from the start, Grant himself is noted as being wounded in the face at the Battle of Talavera and in the right hand at the Storming of Badajoz; he would also have participated in the 88th's famous bayonet charge at Bussaco and witnessed their capture of a French 'Jingling Johnny' at Salamanca.
Grant was discharged from the Army on 29 July 1817 after 20 years 299 days' service (plus two years and six months additional time counted for the West Indies) and became an In-Pensioner at the Royal Hospital Chelsea on 1 October 1856. His Peninsular wounds had also entitled him to an additional pension of 1s 7 1/2d per diem, and it is worthy of note that this number and combination of clasps appears to be unique to the 88th Foot.

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Sold for
£5,500

Starting price
£1900