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Auction: 26003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 111

Pair: Troop Sergeant-Major J. Coombs, 15th (The King's) Hussars, who 'distinguished himself as a brave soldier in action' and was afterwards present with his Regiment at the 'Peterloo Massacre' in Manchester in 1819

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Toulouse (J. Coombs, Tp. Serjt. Major, 15th Hussars.); Waterloo 1815 (John Coombs, 15th or King’s Reg. Hussars), fitted with steel clip and contemporary silver bar suspension, edge bruising and contact marks, therefore good fine, the first very fine (2)

John Coombs was born at Romsey, Hampshire, and attested for the 15th Hussars at Guildford on 18 January 1810, aged nineteen, a baker by trade. Promoted Corporal on 24 June 1813 he served in that rank in France when posted there for action around Toulouse having arrived in theatre in September that same year. He appears to have missed the action at Orthes in February 1814 but was certainly present for Toulouse in April of that year, leaving the theatre in September 1814 for Clonmel, Ireland.

Reduced to Private in December 1814, he was with the regiment at Waterloo where their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Thackwell, was wounded. Surviving that great day of 18 June 1815, Coombs was promoted to Corporal again a year later, in June 1816.

It was in this rank that he was stationed in Manchester on 16 August 1819 when the regiment was called out to support the militia and participated in what became known as the 'Peterloo Massacre'. This unfortunate occasion was sparked when the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry attempted to make arrests at a mass meeting of the Manchester Reformers, which spiralled out of control into violence and bloodshed. The 15th Hussars were summoned to disperse the crowd and restore order, but instead formed themselves into a line and charged the crowd, resulting in eighteen deaths and hundreds wounded by the end of the day. The following is an eyewitness account of the charge by Samuel Bamford, taken from his Passages in the Life of a Radical:

'On the cavalry drawing up they were received with a shout of goodwill, as I understood it. They shouted again, waving their sabres over their heads; and then, slackening rein, and striking spur into their steeds, they dashed forward and began cutting the people...The cavalry were in confusion: they evidently could not, with all the weight of man and horse, penetrate that compact mass of human beings and their sabres were plied to hew a way through naked held-up hands and defenceless heads; and then chopped limbs and wound-gaping skulls were seen; and groans and cries were mingled with the din of that horrid confusion.'

Further promoted to Sergeant in April 1824 Coombs was advanced Troop Sergeant-Major in September 1828, in which rank he was discharged at Dublin on 16 October 1834, having been found unfit for service from severe rheumatism and being worn out.

His discharge papers state that he served 'nearly five months in France in 1814 and was present at the Battle of Toulouse; about a year in the Netherlands and France in 1815 & 16, was at Waterloo'. The papers also note that he 'distinguished himself as a brave soldier in action'; sold together with copied research.

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Estimate
£2,800 to £3,200

Starting price
£2600