Orders, Decorations and Medals

Punjab 1848-49, 2 clasps, Chilianwala, Goojerat (Color Serjt. G. Hoare, 24th Foot) very fine £300-350

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Choice Collection of Medals and other items to the 24th Foot (South Wales Borderers).

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George Hoare was born at Hawkchurch, near Poole, Dorset, and attested for the 24th Foot at Portsomouth on 27 February 1840, three months after his eighteenth birthday. He served as a Color-Sergeant with the Army of the Punjab in 1848-49, and was present at the battles of Sadoolapore, Chilianwala, and Gojerat, for which he received the medal with two clasps. He was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major in July 1857, and was discharged after 21 years 7 months service on 15 October 1861. A graphic eye-witness account of this campaign and these battles is given by Color-Sergeant Hoare in a letter written to his mother on 13 April 1849, and now in the possession of the regimental museum at Brecon. Of the battle of Chilianwala, he concludes, ‘For full two hours the struggle continued fierce in the extreme, then at last the number being so great we had to retire and then I ventured to gaze on myself covered with blood and dust and mad with thirst on this fatal day. I was with the colours of the Regiment the whole of the officers attending which fell covered with glory.’ The medal is sold with a copy of this letter and copy discharge papers.