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Auction: 24001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 66

Four: Brigade Surgeon T. Wright, Army Medical Staff, whose long career saw him in serve as Medical Officer in charge of the European Base Hospital of the Kurram Field Force

Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Asst Surgn Thomas Wright. XXth Regt), contemporarily engraved naming; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Lucknow (Asst Surgn T. Wright, 38th Regt); Afghanistan 1878-80, no clasp (Sur: Maj: T. Wright. A.M.D.); Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian Issue, contact marks and edge bruising, very fine (4)

Provenance:
D.N.W. September 2006.

Thomas Wright was born at Kilkenny, Ireland on 30 November 1831. Becoming an M.R.C.S., he was appointed an Assistant Surgeon with the 20th Regiment on 21 April 1854. Serving in the Crimean War, Wright was present at the Battle of Alma he was later to be in on the action at Inkermann where 9 officers and 162 men of the 20th took part.

They were later to be depicted in the portrait The Return from Inkermann by Lady Butler, which shows the 20th Regiment and the Foot Guards marching back from the Battle. During the Siege of Sebastopol, the Regiment was part of the First and Final Attacks on the Redan Redoubt, and the expedition to Kinbourn.

Appointed an Assistant Surgeon with the 38th Regiment in July 1857, Wright was with them for Sir Colin Cambell's assault on Lucknow. With the city retaken and the defenders of the residency relieved Campbell was forced to march a column, including Wright and a detachment of the 38th Foot back to Cawnpore where General Windham was under attack.

Tantia Tope at the head of a large army including the Gwalior Contingent had driven the defenders back to the city. Campbell attacked on 6 November 1857 turning the right flank of the rebel line and threatened their line of the retreat, causing them to break and flee.

Wright was then present for the final capture of Lucknow and later operations in Oudh, notably the capture of Meeangunge (Meangunge), under Sir Hope Grant. The city was taken by storm, with Grant's column seizing 6 guns and killing 900 of their enemy.

Promoted to Surgeon on 20 June 1865, he served with the 80th Regiment and then the 93rd Highlanders before finally being advanced Surgeon-Major with the Army Medical Department on 1 March 1873. Wright was still stationed in India at the outbreak of the Second Afghan War and was placed in medical charge of the European Base Hospital of the Kurram Field Force from November 1879-November 1880. He retired with the honorary rank of Brigade Surgeon on 7 May 1884 and died on 20 July 1900; sold together with copied research.

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Sold for
£750

Starting price
£700