Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Waterloo 1815 (Corp. Francis Donliavy, 2nd Batt. 69th Reg. Foot.) fitted with original steel clip and ring suspension, light edge bruise and minor contact marks, otherwise good very fine £2000-2600

Francis Donliavy (variously spelt Donleavy, Donlavey, Dunlavy, Dunlevy, Dunleavy) was born circa 1790 in Baleek, County Fermanagh, Ireland, and enlisted into the Fermanagh Militia on 19 August 1809. He volunteered to join the 2nd Battalion of the 69th Regiment on 2 October 1812, receiving a levy of £7-7-0d, stating his occupation as a weaver. He was discharged to Chelsea pension on 9 August 1816, having been found unfit for further service in consequence of ‘receiving a Gun Shot Wound of the Left Side in action with the enemy on the 16 June 1815 at Quatre Bras.’

He is mentioned in Surgeon James Guthrie’s book Commentaries on the Surgery of the War in Portugal, Spain, France and the Netherlands, George James Guthrie, London, 1855:

‘Corporals Bell, Dunleavy (sic) and Sweeney were all from Fermanagh. Bell and Sweeney were 27 years old whilst Francis Dunleavy was 24. Wounded at Quatre Bras by a musket ball in the chest, Corporal Dunleavy was not tended until 19th June, during which time he stated he had been vomiting a great quantity of blood. He was then subjected to substantial bleeding by the surgeons, 42 ounces being removed from him before the 19th June, and 92 ounces over the following six weeks. He was also given saline purgatives and kept on a strict milk diet. It is a testament to the resilience of the man that he survived all this and was sent back to England on the 31st of August “declaring himself quite as well as he had been in his life.”’

Sold with copied service papers and comprehensive research.