Three: Major J. P. Pigott, Ambulance Corps, late 32nd Regiment

Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Mooltan, Goojerat (Capt., 32nd Foot); Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol, unnamed as issued, last clasp loose; Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue, unnamed, pierced with ring suspension, minor edge bruising, slight contact marks, nearly very fine (3) £1800-2200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick.

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John Pelling Pigott was commissioned Ensign in the 32nd Regiment by purchase on 15 February 1839 and advanced by purchase to the ranks of Lieutenant on 28 January 1842 and Captain on 19 December 1845. With the regiment he served in the Second Sikh War, being present at the 1st and 2nd sieges of Mooltan, including the attack on the suburbs on 27 December 1848, the storm and capture of the city and surrender of the fortress. He was also present at the surrender of the fort and garrison of Cheniote and at the battle of Goojerat. Appointed to the Staff in April 1851 and placed on Half Pay in August the same year, he later served in the Crimea War as one of the three officers of the Ambulance Corps. For his services in the war he received the brevet of Major on 31 March 1856.

When the Crimea War broke out there were no organized Medical Services. To remedy the lack, the ‘Hospital Conveyance Corps’ or ‘Ambulance Corps’ was created. The corps was recruited from military pensioners and other non-effectives. Their duties were to act as stretcher-bearers in the field, act as hospital orderlies, supply hospital transport and supply medical staff with servants. The Corps proved an utter failure. Lack of training, the age and infirmity of the pensioners, coupled with their predilection for alcohol and lack of an adequate command structure doomed the corps from the start. The Ambulance Corps was soon replaced, in part by the Land Transport Corps, who transported the sick and wounded after they had been removed from the battlefield, and in 1855, by the Medical Staff Corps, who supplied hospital orderlies and support staff, in turn replaced in 1857 by the Army Hospital Corps.

Sold with copied research. The medals contained in a gilt glass-fronted case. Sold with a three-quarter length portrait of Major Pigott, wearing his uniform and three medals. The portrait, oil on canvas, signed ‘M. Fletcher 1890’, has been professionally restored and is within a gilt frame, 82 x 72cm., with the label ‘Maj. John Pelling Pigott, Ambulance Corps’.