Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria to include a Fine Collection of Napoleonic Medals

Waterloo 1815 (Lieut. Cha. Urquhart, 2nd Batt. 95th Reg. Foot.) fitted with replacement silver post and straight bar suspension, light contact marks, otherwise very fine £5000-6000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Fine Collection of Napoleonic Medals and Artefacts.

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Charles Gordon Urquhart was born in Edinburgh on 8 May 1778. He was first commissioned as a Cornet in the 2nd Dragoons on 7 March 1811, becoming Lieutenant on 11 August 1814. He transferred to the 95th on 27 October 1814, and served with the 2nd Battalion at Waterloo in No. 1 Company. He was placed on the half-pay of the 95th in January 1819, and appointed to the 20th Foot in February 1822. He exchanged to the 1st Foot in December 1822, and to the half-pay of the 84th Foot in January 1823.

At the beginning of 1827 he sailed from Marseilles with Lord Cochrane to take part in the Greek war of independence with Turkey, being appointed a Major in the Greek army. Cochrane, as part of his preparation for the attack on Athens, gained military support from some of the islands in the Cyclades. Hydra supplied 1,000 marines, and they fought hard under the command of Major Urquhart, who won a fine reputation for living with his troops and sharing their life. In 1828, now promoted to Colonel in the Greek army, he was appointed Governor of Grabousa, a small island to the west of Crete freed from the grip of pirates. On 3 March 1828 he was accidentally killed when a shed fell on him ‘blown by a heavy gust of wind’.

Colonel Urquhart’s younger half-brother, David, also took part in the Greek war of independence, became a noted diplomatist, and is generally credited with the introduction of the Turkish bath to Britain.