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Auction: 7022 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 1262

Four: Major-General J.C. Boothby, Royal Artillery Crimea 1854-56, three clasps, Alma, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Major I.(sic) C. Boothby. R.A.), contemporarily engraved in upright sans serif capitals, top lugs removed; France, Second Empire, Legion of Honour, Chevalier´s breast Badge, silver, gold centres, enamel, with high relief crown suspension, minor enamel damage; Turkey, Order of the Medjidieh, Fifth Class breast Badge, silver, gold and enamel, centre worn; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian die, engraved in upright serif capitals ´J.G. Boothby. Major. R.A. March. 1859.´, pierced as issued, with ring suspension, campaign medals polished therefore fine or better, decorations unusually good very fine (4) Estimate £ 500-700 Major-General John George Boothby, commissioned Second Lieutenant Royal Artillery, 1844; Lieutenant 1846; Captain 1852; served in the Crimea War 1854-56 including the affair at McKenzie´s Farm, the battles of Alma and Inkermann, the siege of Sebastopol, and the repulse of the sortie on 26.10.1854; at the Battle of Inkermann (5.11.1854) Boothby commanded a demi-battery on Home Ridge and under his command during the engagement was Sergeant-Major A. Henry who was awarded a Victoria Cross for his bravery during the action, ´The troops of the enemy vanguard were moving up on a front so closely connected and straight as to be in order for making an absolutely single attack along the whole line.... the onset now first to be witnessed is the one which broke over the western extremity of the Home Ridge..... It was there, as we saw, that a demi-battery under Lieutenant Boothby, which formed part of Captain Turner´s command, had been placed by Colonel Fitzmayer. For want of room on the crest, the leftmost of the three pieces - the one under Sergeant-Major Henry - had been placed upon the westward slope of the Ridge, where it not only stood lower down than the rest of the demi-battery, but upon ground encompassed by tall brushwood.... The assailants were advancing in strength against both the front and right side of Boothby´s guns, but it was from another direction that the enemy delivered his home thrust; for one of his columns, which had made a bend round by its right in order to approach unobserved, now all at once flooded in from the west upon the flank of this half-battery, and in an instant Henry´s gun was surrounded by the Russians. From the other part of the half-battery men found time to fire a round of ´case´ but not, it would seem, with any great result, for the weight of the attack was in the flank. I cannot undertake so broad a negative as to assert that no English infantry were witnesses of this attack, but it is certain that none came up in time to avert the capture. An order was given to limber up, but the drivers, it then appeared, had already retreated with all the limbers and teams; and the Russian troops then breaking in upon the two upper guns, the officers and artillerymen present with that part of the demi-battery fell back several paces, or rather moved up by their right to a higher part of the Ridge. When the foremost of the enemy´s troops had so closely surrounded Henry´s gun as to be already but a few paces off, they charged in with loud shouts, undertaking to bayonet the gunners.... Henry called upon his men to defend the gun. He and a valiant gunner named James Taylor drew their swords and stood firm. The throng of Russians came closing in... ´howling like mad dogs´. Henry with his left hand wrested a bayonet from one of the Russians and found means to throw the man down, fighting hard all the time with his sword-arm against some of his other assailants. Soon, both Henry and Taylor were closed in upon from all sides and bayoneted again and again, Taylor then receiving his death wounds. Henry received in his chest the up-thrust of a bayonet, delivered with such power as to lift him almost from the ground, and at the same time he was stabbed in the back and stabbed in the arms. Then, from loss of blood, he became unconscious, but the raging soldiery, inflamed by Religion, did not cease from stabbing his heretic body. He received twelve wounds, yet survived. (Kinglake refers); shortly after Henry and Taylor´s acts of gallantry, Boothby´s guns were re-captured at the point of the bayonet by a body of Zouaves; for his services in the Crimea Boothby was made Brevet Major 12.12.1854 (Legion of Honour and Order of Medjidieh); advanced Colonel 1871; retired Major-General 1875.

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£1,150