CAMPAIGN GROUPS AND PAIRS
“We had raw salted pork and biscuits and green coffee berries. Just fancy what the administration of the commissariat was which gave us green coffee berries which had to be roasted and ground before we could make a little coffee! But that was not all. We had no fuel to make fires wherewithal to roast or cook. Our pork we had to eat raw. My dinner on Christmas day, 1854, was raw salted pork and biscuit. It was simply horrible.”
‘Under this regime men were dying on every side. As the year grew older the cold became more intense, and cases of frost bite of more and more frequent occurrence. The feet and toes were mostly attacked. There were plenty of shoes at Balaclava; but red tape and want of transport prevented their being sent to the front, and the toes and feet and even the legs of poor fellows in the trenches, in a very literal sense, rotted off. Early in January, 1855, Mr Lees’ feet were attacked; but he continued to fulfil his round of duty in the trenches. It is one of the peculiarities of frost bite that when once it has fastened on any of the extremities of the human body no pain is felt, and hence it is possible for a man to go on for a time unaware of the terrible risk he is running in making no complaint to the surgeon. At last he was ordered to the hospital tent. The first night of his sojourn there a man on either side of him died, one of them in his delirium calling for his mother.’
‘Mr Lees was affected in the toes of both feet, and as soon as possible he was sent down, with others, to the hospital shop at Balaclava for transmission to the Naval Hospital, at Therapia, about fifteen miles from Constantinople. He was mounted on a mule, and in the course of his journey one of his toes dropped off. He speaks in the highest terms of the skill and attention bestowed upon the sufferers at Therapia. As the patients recovered they were sent home by easy stages, to England. On arriving at Woolwich most of the invalids were able to walk to their quarters. He, however, could only hobble along in great pain. A young man - a marine - who stood on the steps saw him, took him on his back, and carried him into the building. This young man he met many years after in the person of Police constable Harvey, who was so well-known and respected in Dudley. In a short time Mr Lees received his discharge, and left the army minus the whole of the toes of both feet - a cripple for life; and a grateful country bestowed upon him the munificent pension of six pence halfpenny a day. He came in, of course, for a medal when these were distributed as memorials of the campaign and he was also the recipient of a similar token from the Turkish Government.’
853 Pair: Sergeant J. Looscan, Connaught Rangers, late 55th Regiment
INDIA GENERAL SERVICE 1854-95, 1 clasp, Bhootan (863
H.Ms. 55th Regt.); ARMY L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (862 Cr. Sergt., Conn. Rang.) note slightly different service numbers, first with contact marks, nearly very fine and better (2)
£350-400 854
Three: Syce Davi, 1st Bombay Lancers
INDIA GENERAL SERVICE 1854-95, 1 clasp, Burma 1885-7, bronze issue (Syce Davee,1st Bombay Lcrs.); QUEEN’S SUDAN 1896 -98, bronze issue, unnamed; KHEDIVE’S SUDAN 1896-1908, no clasp, bronze issue (Syce Davi, 14/1st Bo. Lcrs.) note different spelling of name, mounted for display, very fine (3)
£300-350 With some copied research on unit. 855 Three: Serjeant W. Thomas, Royal Welsh Fusiliers
INDIA GENERAL SERVICE 1854-95, 1 clasp, Hazara 1891 (985 Corpl., 1st Bn. R.W. Fus.); QUEEN’S SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1902, 2 clasps, Cape Colony, Transvaal (985 Corl., R. Welsh Fus.); KING’S SOUTH AFRICA 1901-02, 2 clasp (985 Serjt., Rl. Welsh Fus.) very fine and better (3)
£260-300
www.dnw.co.uk
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