Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Colonel John Vandeleur, 12th Light Dragoons, late 71st Foot; he was severely wounded at Fuentes D’Onor and later commanded the 10th Hussars

Military General Service 1793-1814, 5 clasps, Fuentes D’Onor, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive (J. Vandeleur, Ensn. 71st Foot & Lieut. 12th Lt. Dns.); Waterloo 1815 (Lieut. John Vandeleur, 12th Reg. Light Dragoons.) fitted with contemporary replacement silver clip and bar suspension, the second with edge bruising and contact pitting, otherwise good fine, the first good very fine (2) £6,000-£8,000

Wallis & Wallis, May 1964.

John Vandeleur was born in 1793 and attended the Royal Military College. He was commissioned as an Ensign in the 71st Foot in 1809 and sailed with its 1st Battalion to Portugal in September 1810. He served with them in the Lines of Torres Vedras and was severely wounded at Fuentes de Oñoro on 5 May 1811. His wounds were so severe that he was sent back to England to recuperate and shortly after arriving home he was promoted to Lieutenant. He exchanged into the 12th Light Dragoons and returned to Portugal with them in the autumn of 1812. In August 1813 Lieutenant Vandeleur was able to convince his cousin, General John Ormsby Vandeleur, to take him on as an extra aide-de-camp. He served in that position through the invasion of France in the autumn of 1813 and the winter of 1814, until the British Army returned to England after the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814. During that period he was present at Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Adour and Bordeaux. Lieutenant Vandeleur served at Waterloo with his regiment and was part of the Army of Occupation of France. He was promoted to Captain, 28 February 1822; Major, 1 October 1825; Lieutenant-Colonel, 18 December 1827; He received a special gold medal at the Queen’s coronation (The Waterloo Roll Call refers); Colonel, 10th Hussars, 23 November 1841. He died at Ballinacourty, County Limerick, on 1 April 1864.

See Letters of Colonel John Vandeleur 1810-1846, privately published in 1896; reprinted by Frontline in 2015 under the title With Wellington’s Outposts: the Peninsula and Waterloo letters of John Vandeleur, edited by Andrew Bamford.