Medals to The Gordon Highlanders and Associated Units from the Collection of A.J. Henderson

Military General Service 1793-1814, 7 clasps, Talavera, Fuentes D’Onor, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse (James McIntosh, 92nd Foot) minor edge bruise, otherwise good very fine and rare £1800-2200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals to The Gordon Highlanders and Associated Units from the Collection of A.J. Henderson.

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James McIntosh was born at Clackmannon and initially joined the 14th Battalion of the Reserve on 25 October 1803, and remained with them until he was transferred to the 1st Battalion of the 92nd Highlanders on 24 March 1804. He served with the regiment in Copenhagen in 1807, but was on detachment from the battalion when the 92nd marched with Moore’s Army in the retreat to and eventual battle of Corunna, being afterwards evacuated to England. As a result McIntosh was left in the Peninsula and, with others of the 92nd who had been left behind in Portugal, formed the 92nd Company in the 1st Battalion of Detachments, one of two such detachments formed from odd men left behind by the various regiments of Moore’s Army. These two battalions of ‘odd men’, from 14 regiments in the 1st Battalion and from 13 regiments and the Staff Corps in the 2nd Battalion, accompanied Wellington on his Campaign of 1809, and were present at the Passage of the Douro and the battle of Talavera. Only these men from the 92nd were eligible to receive the clasp for Talavera and just 11 men of the regiment eventually claimed the clasp in 1848. However, of these 11 medals finally awarded, there is considerable doubt as to the eligibility of five of them. McIntosh was one of the six genuine claimants to receive this clasp.

McIntosh and the others from the 92nd rejoined the 1st Battalion upon its return from the Walcheren expedition. He subsequently took part in the engagements at Fuentes D’Onoro, Arroyo del Molinos, Almaraz, Vittoria, the Pass of Maya in the Pyrenees, Nivelle, St Pierre [Nive], Arriverete, Orthes, Aire, and Toulouse. He also fought with the 92nd at Waterloo and was wounded either at Quatre Bras on the 16th June or at Waterloo itself on the 18th. He was discharged on 12 November 1818, in consequence of reduction, being under size and of impaired constitution. His discharge papers also note that he was slightly wounded on the 30th July at Pampeluna in the right knee. Sold with copy discharge papers, full muster details and a copy of Nicola-Jane Henderson’s article The 92nd Company of the First Battalion of Detachments and the Bar for Talavera (OMRS Journal, Winter 1984).