The Waterloo Medal awarded to Cornet John Picard, Royal Horse Guards

Waterloo 1815 (Cornet T. K. Picard, Royal Horse Guards.) fitted with original steel clip and ring suspension, note error in first initial, edge bruising and some heavy contact marks, especially to the obverse, otherwise toned, very fine and rare £6,000-£8,000

Provenance: Whitaker Collection 1908.

One of only three or four Royal Horse Guards medals to officers available to collectors.

John Kirkby Picard was born in 1797, son of John Kirkby Picard senior, a Deputy Recorder of Hull and a prosperous lead importer who issued lead trading tokens in Hull. The young Picard joined the Royal Horse Guards as a Cornet on 2 September 1813, and fought in Captain Thoyt’s Troop at the battle of Waterloo, the senior of the two Cornets present. He was afterwards promoted to Lieutenant, 20 July 1815, but retired from the service by the sale of his commission on 20 December 1821, receiving the value of a Cornetcy only. He later became a partner in his father's business and died at Christchurch, Hampshire, on 1 October 1836. There is believed to be a portrait of John Kirkby Picard junior in the Hull Museums Collections.