The Collection of Medals formed by the late John Darwent

Three: Troop Sergeant-Major E. Mills, 6th Dragoons, a witness at the famous Court-Martial of Colonel Crawley

Crimea 1854-56, 3 clasps, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (6th Dragoons), officially impressed naming; Army L.S. & G.C., V.R., 3rd issue, small letter reverse (47 Troop Serjt. Major, 6th Dragoons), officially impressed naming; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue (47, 6th Dragoons), old engraved naming, contact marks and edge bruising, good fine or better (3) £1000-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late John Darwent.

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Edward Mills was born at Kidderninster, Worcestershire and enlisted in the 6th Dragoons at Birmingham in June 1841, aged 20 years. He was actively employed out in the Crimea and is verified as having received the Medal and ‘Balaklava’, ‘Inkermann’ and ‘Sebastopol’ clasps, prior to being discharged at Aldershot in September 1856.

In October of the following year, however, he re-enlisted in his old regiment at Brighton, and was advanced to Corporal that December and to Sergeant in August 1858. Service in India followed several months later, and while stationed at Mhow he became embroiled in the notorious affair which culminated in the Court-Martial of Lieutenant-Colonel Crawley, C.O. of the 6th Dragoons. When proceedings were convened back in Aldershot, Mills was called as a prosecution witness, yet, as it transpired, he turned out to be a “Colonel’s man”, his evidence being of far more use to the defence, not least the charge of frequent drunkenness he cast against Regimental Sergeant-Major Lilley, thereby supporting the allegations made by the Colonel.

Returning to India at the end of the trial, Mills was advanced to Troop Sergeant-Major in January 1864, an advancement that was nearly curtailed in September of the following year, when, for reasons unknown, he was confined, tried and sentenced to be reduced to the rank of Private, and to receive 28 days imprisonment. Fortuitously, however, his earlier performance back in Aldershot at the Court-Martial had not been forgotten, and Colonel Crawley intervened, the sentence being remitted and Mills re-instated as Troop Sergeant-Major.

Discharged to a pension back in England in October 1867, he gave his intended place of residence as Cobham Hall, near Gravesend, and he appears with his family in the 1871 census as a resident of Cobham Street, Cobham, Kent - and as being employed as a Sergeant-Major in the Yeomanry Cavalry.