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Auction: 13001 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 159

A Good M.G.S. to Corporal S. Jeffries, 4th Foot, Whose Superb Battle Record Included Service at Copenhagen; in the Peninsula, Where He Was Wounded at Badajoz; in North America Where He Was Present at the Battle of Bladensburg and the Subsequent Burning of The Capitol and The White House; and at Waterloo
Military General Service 1793-1814, five clasps, Corunna, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, St. Sebastian (S. Jeffries, Corpl. 4th. Foot.), the two clasp sections re-affixed, otherwise extremely fine

Corporal Stephen Jeffries, born Throwley, near Canterbury, Kent, c.1782; enlisted in the 4th (King´s Own) Foot, May 1802; served with the Regiment at the Battle of Copenhagen 1807, to prevent the Danish fleet defecting to the Franco-Russian alliance; with the 1st Battalion in the Peninsula at the Battles of Corunna, where the 4th particularly distinguished themselves, Barba del Puerco, Rodrigo, Badajoz (wounded by a piece of shell), where the Battalion suffered 42 men killed and 188 wounded, Salamanca, Palentia, Vittoria, St. Sebastian, where the Battalion suffered 119 men killed and 159 wounded, Badasoa, and Nive; and in North America at the Battle of Bladensburg, 24.8.1814; the subsequent capture and burning of the public buildings in Washington, D.C., including the Capitol and the White House- ´the greatest disgrace every dealt to American arms´; and the Battles of Baltimore, and New Orleans; finally served during the Waterloo Campaign, as part of Captain Shaw´s No.1 Company, 16-18.6.1815, when the Regiment suffered 12 men killed and 8 officers and 113 men wounded; discharged as a consequence of ´being nearly worn out´, February 1819, after 18 years and 298 days with the Colours.

Provenance: Glendining, March 1927

Sold for
£6,000