M.G.S. and N.G.S. Meals to the Royal Engineers and the Royal Sappers & Miners

Military General Service 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Nivelle, Nive (J. Hulme, Lieut. R. Engrs.) nearly extremely fine £1400-1600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, M.G.S. and N.G.S. Meals to the Royal Engineers and the Royal Sappers & Miners.

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Ex Graveson Collection 1989.

John Lyon Hulme was born on 23 September 1790 in Manchester, Nova Scotia, and was commissioned from the Cadet Company as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 24 June 1809. He was stationed at Chatham until March 1810, and he then served in the Peninsula, France and the Netherlands for six years from April 1810 to February 1816.

Hulme was stationed in Portugal near Lisbon in April 1810, and was promoted to Lieutenant on 10 July of that year. He was one of twenty Royal Engineer officers who were engaged there in the construction of the Defence Lines of Torres Vedras. These defence lines
were divided into various districts, and Captain George Ross and Lieutenant Hulme were the engineer officers responsible for No. 7 District, the western part of the southern line of defence works constructed from Ribamar on the Atlantic coast, to the Royal Park at Mafra, with the headquarters at Mafra. The other districts along the southern line of defence were No. 6, from Mafra to Bucellas, and No. 5, from Bucellas to Quintella on the River Tagus. Captain George Ross RE was later killed by grape shot on 14 January 1812 at the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo.

Hulme was present in Spain with the 8th Brigade at the 2nd Siege of Badaioz in June 1811, which began with simultaneous attacks on the Castle and Fort Christoval. Later Hulme was present at the battles of of Nivelle in November 1813, and Nive in December, the passage of the Adour, and the investment and sortie from Bayonne in April 1814. On 20 December 1814 he was promoted to 2nd Captain. In May 1815, he took part in operations in the Netherlands, commanding a Division of the Pontoon Train, and he supervised the construction of a bridge of vessels at Boom, across the Rupel, a branch of the Scheldt, to secure a shorter and more direct route between Brussels and Antwerp. After the victory at Waterloo, Hulme and his Pontoon Train Division moved on into France to Paris. He then served with the Army of Occupation in France until February 1816, and returned to Woolwich in March 1816. He received War Prize money for the Peninsula.

Hulme was subsequently stationed in Malta and the Ionian Islands from August 1818 to December 1819. He was then placed on Half Pay for several years, and was re-apponted on Full Pay in March 1825. He was stationed at Exeter for three and a half years until January 1829, when he was then promoted in May as 1st Captain on Half-Pay. Captain Hulme retired on Full Pay on 6 December 1835, having completed more than 21 years service. He returned to Devon, where he lived at 7 Dix's Field, Exeter. He was given the Brevet rank of Major RE on 28 November 1854, and died in Exeter on 26 February 1870, aged 79. Sold with full research.