Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Crimea War campaign service pair awarded to Captain F. Sutherland, 2nd Dragoons, who was present as a Troop Leader in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava in October 1854

Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Francis Sutherland, Capt., 2nd Drags. Scots Greys), contemporary engraved naming, with silver riband buckle for wearing, contained in its Hunt & Roskell velvet lined fitted case, the lid with gilt title, ‘Captn. Sutherland, Royal Scots Greys’; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed, polished, thus about very fine (2) £4000-5000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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Francis Sutherland purchased a Cornetcy in the 2nd Dragoons in September 1847 and a Lieutenancy in April 1851. His advancement to Captain in November 1854, however, was without purchase, and possibly reflected his part in the previous month’s action at Balaklava. During that celebrated engagement, he served as one of four Troop Leaders in the Scots Greys, and was memorably called upon to ‘dress the ranks’ as the Russian cavalry swept down on the Brigade - this entailed turning his back on the enemy and facing the men in his Troop and no-one moved until the second-in-command considered the regiment ready and brought them round. The rest, as they say, is history.

Sutherland resigned his commission in February 1856, when he appears to have settled in Herefordshire, but accompanying documentation suggests that he finally retired to Great Malvern, Worcestershire.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation and related artefacts, including:

(i) A letter from the recipient to his mother, dated 5 January 1840.

(ii) His orders on appointment to a Cornetcy in the 2nd Dragoons, dated at Horse Guards, 30 September 1847 (‘You will join at Athlone on or before 20 November next’); a ‘Leave of Absence’ certificate, dated at Horse Guards, 26 November 1847, permitting Sutherland to be away ‘from 24 September 1847 to the 31 December 1847’; his commission warrants for the rank of Ensign, dated at St. James’s 25 July 1848, Lieutenant, dated at St. James’s, 17 April 1851 and Captain, dated at Windsor, 12 February 1855, the reverse of this last with an illuminated armorial and text pertinent to his family’s Grant of Arms from the Lord Lyon, bearing an official ‘VR’ stamp, his name and military appointment, and the date January 1855 (the Arms appear to have originally been granted to an ancestor, John Sutherland of Forfar, in 1738).

(iii) His folded parchment passport, with additional interior pages bearing numerous Consulate stamps for the Crimea period, in black leather cover with gilt embossed title, ‘Captn. F. Sutherland’.

(iv) Horse Guards letter inviting him to attend a ceremony ‘for the purpose of receiving the Medal from Her Majesty’s hands’, dated 11 May 1855.

(v) A pair of watercolour sketches, presumably by the recipient, one depicting a gentleman archer, no doubt a member of the “Herefordshire Bowmen” (see ix); a pair of coloured prints depicting officers of the 2nd Dragoons, one of them in action at Balaklava; and a pair of cut-out military officer caricatures, mounted on cardboard.

(vii) A colour-printed membership certificate of The Clan Sutherland Society, signed by the President and Secretary and with member’s name in ink, ‘Captain Frank Sutherland’; Great Malvern ‘Burial Board for the Parish’ certificate, dated 23 February 1871, in which Sutherland is guaranteed ‘the right of burial in grave space No. 1739’.

(viii) A pair of black leather gloves, with accompanying explanatory note in a contemporary hand, ‘Worn at the Duke of Wellington’s Funeral by Francis Sutherland, Esq., Lieutenant in Her Majesty’s Royal Scots Greys, Nov. 1852’.

(ix) A bronze commemorative medallion, “England and France United to Defend the Oppressed”, 1854, by Allens & Moore, the edge engraved, ‘Presented to Francis Sutherland, Scots Greys, on Leaving for the Crimea, July 1854’; and a silver prize award, in the form of a maltese cross, with central circular wreath, this latter with embossed title, ‘Herefordshire Bowmen’, in fitted green leather case of issue.

(x) The recipient’s cheroot case, a most attractive example with embroidered initials ‘J.S.’, family motto and ‘the cat sergeant proper’ from his Arms; together with his pen-knife, with presentation inscription, ‘F. Sutherland from H. W. Lyons, 2nd Life Guards’, both of which may well have accompanied him to the Crimea.

(xi) Russian Campaign Medal for 1848, original silk riband, as undoubtedly brought back by Sutherland from the Crimea.

(xii) The recipient’s bullion embroidered cross-belt pouch, ‘VR’ cypher, single battle honour “Waterloo”, in its Andrews of Pall Mall leather cover, the former moth-eaten, particularly to reverse, and his gilt helmet plume holder.

(xiii) An old pottery ink-well / pen-stand, with transfer image of ‘The Charge of the Scots Greys at Balaklava’.