An important Crimean War Al Valore Militare group of six awarded to General Sir Thomas Holloway, K.C.B., Royal Marine Artillery

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (Lieut. Col. Holloway, Royal Marines) contemporary engraved naming; China 1857-60, 1 clasp, Canton 1857 (Col. T. Holloway R.M.) contemporary engraved naming; Legion of Honour, Officer’s breast badge, silver, gold and enamels, lacking one ball point finial; Order of the Medjidie, 4th Class breast badge, silver, gold and enamel; Al Valore Militare, ‘Spedizione d’Oriente 1855-1856’ (Bt. Coll. T. Holloway R.M.); Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, unnamed, fitted with ‘roped’ bar suspension surmounted by a crescent, contact marks, otherwise very fine or better (6) £3000-3500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The collection of Medals formed by the Late Clive Nowell.

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Thomas Holloway was born in 1810 and was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Marine Artillery on 17 March 1825; 1st Lieutenant, December 1833; Captain, November 1842; Major, June 1854; Lieutenant-Colonel, November 1854. Holloway commanded a Battalion of Royal Marines in the Crimea during the siege of Sebastopol in 1854-55, until its fall, and was employed at the occupation of Kertch, and advance on Yeni Kalé, also at the surrender of Kinbourn (Despatches London Gazette 27 November 1855; Medal with Clasp, Officer of Legion of Honour, Sardinian Medal, 4th Class of the Medjidie and Turkish Medal.

He was promoted to Colonel in March 1857 and the following August was appointed to command a Brigade ordered for special service in China. He was present during the blockade of the Canton river, landing before and the storming of Canton, 28/29 December 1857, on which occasion he was wounded (appointed C.B. 18 June 1858). Holloway was appointed to the Military Command of the City and senior of the three Allied Commissioners for the government of that Province from 9 January 1858 until 31 December 1859. He also commanded the Brigade in action with the Braves near the White Cloud Mountains, 3 June 1858, and in that with the Quantung Braves on 4 January, and at the destruction of the town of Shektsing on 8 January 1859 (Despatches London Gazette 26 February and 5 March 1858; Medal with Clasp.

Holloway was A.D.C. to the Queen from 27 February 1857 to 1 July 1858. He was Colonel 2nd Commandant R.M. from 25 February 1858, and Colonel Commandant from 21 November 1859, until death. Elevated to K.C.B. in March 1867, he was promoted to General on 1 April 1870, and died on 21 July 1875 at Havant, Hampshire.