A fine Collection of Medals to the Sherwood Foresters

Three: Colonel N. Knatchbull, 95th Regiment

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (L[ie]ut. N. Knatchbull, 95th R[eg]t.) engraved naming; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 1 clasp, Central India (Lieut. N. Knatchbull, 95th Regt.); Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed, ‘plugged and fitted with a ‘British Crimea’ style suspension, mounted for wear, edge bruising, contact marks, nearly very fine (3) £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A fine Collection of Medals to the Sherwood Foresters.

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Norton Knatchbull was born on 16 January 1834 and was appointed an Ensign in the 95th (Derbyshire) Regiment on 29 December 1854. With them he served in the Crimea from 16 June 1854, including the siege and fall of Sebastopol, and was appointed Lieutenant in March 1855.

He accompanied the Headquarters Wing to India in June 1857 and served throughout the suppression of the Indian Mutiny. Knatchbull was present at the siege and capture of Kotah, the re-capture of Chundaree; battle of Kotake Serai, the action resulting in the capture of Gwalior; siege and capture of Pounie; and the suprise of the rebel camp at Koondrye. He was mentioned in Sir Hugh Rose’s despatches for assisting in the capture of a howitzer and the turning of it on the enemy at the battle before Gwalior. Of him at this period, Colonel Crealock afterwards wrote, ‘He was 6ft 2ins., as strong as the Wiltshire Downs could make him, with a voice like a gong; added to this he was at that time probably the fastest runner in the British Army’. And at the final capture of the gun he said, ‘Norton Knatchbull was lying across the breach, panting and white with dust .... He was the first of ours in, and it was he who, if I remember rightly, scratched “95” on one of the guns with his sword’.

Knatchbull was promoted Captain in November 1860; appointed Brevet Major in December 1873; was promoted Major in July 1875 and retired with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1881. Colonel Knatchbull died in Bournemouth on 14 December 1921.

With extensive copied research contained in a folder, including copied photographs.