Pair: Gunner John Butcher, Ross’s (Chestnut) Troop, Royal Horse Artillery

Military General Service 1793-1814, 9 clasps, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nive, Orthes (J. Butcher, Gunr., Royal H. Arty.); Waterloo 1815 (John Butcher, Gunner, Royal Horse Artillery) original steel clip and ring suspension, second with slight edge bruising and light contact marks, good very fine (2) £4000-4500

Originally sold as a pair in the Tomkins Collection at Glendining’s, November 1913, and reunited after being a long time split; the single M.G.S. was ex Hamilton-Smith sale, 20/21 July 1927; the Waterloo ex D.N.W., March 2002; the pair ex D.N.W., September 2008.

John Butcher was born at Woodbridge, Suffolk, and enlisted, together with his brother Joseph, at Walpole, Suffolk, on 17 March 1805. Both brothers served as Gunners in Lieutenant-Colonel Ross’s “A” Troop, the ‘Chestnut Troop’, Royal Horse Artillery, during the Peninsula and Waterloo campaigns. John Butcher was discharged to Pension on 20 April 1826, ‘being unfit for further service from debility.’

“A” Troop Royal Horse Artillery was formed in 1793 and is the senior battery in the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Equipped exclusively with chestnut horses from the start, Wellington asked about the whereabouts of the ‘Chestnut Troop’ during the battle of Waterloo. This unofficial title stuck until Edward VII sanctioned the honour title of “A” Battery (The Chestnut Troop) Royal Horse Artillery in 1902.

Sold with copied service papers and other research.