Lieutenant Colonel Boyd Francis Alexander, Rifle Brigade

1822 pattern Infantry officer’s sword, blade 84cm by Henry Wilkinson, Pall Mall, London, (No 23512) etched with VR cypher, foliage &c., brass gothic hilt with VR cyphe, fish-skin covered grip bound with copper wire, complete with brass scabbard for an officer of field rank, brass a little polished otherwise virtually as made, the blade near pristine £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The fine collection of attributed British Officers' Swords formed by Hal Giblin.

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See colour plate.

Sword sold by Wilkinson to B. F. Alexander, February 1870.

Boyd Francis Alexander, son of Boyd Alexander of Ballochmyle, N.B., was born in 1834, and was educated at Harrow. Hwe was gazetted to the Rifle Brigade on 11 June 1852, and served with the 1st Battalion in Turkey but did not accompany it to the Crimea. A Captain by 1855, he was posted to the 3rd battalion and went with it to India, and served throughout the Indian Mutiny, being present at the final battle of Cawnpore and the siege and capture of Lucknow; later taking part in the campaign in Oudh and the action of Nawabgunge. At the attack at Fort Birwah on 21 September 1858, Alexander led the storming party which, crossing a deep ditch, climbed by means of ladders, a rampart some thirty feet high. He was slightly wounded during the action, and for his conduct was mentioned in General Barker’s despatches as deserving of the greatest credit. A Major by 1870, he took part in the the suppression of the Fenian Raid in Canada. He retired from the Army as a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1872, and died at his home at Cranbrook in Kent on 19 August 1917. His eldest son also a Rifle Brigade officer, became the famous African Explorer.