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

Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Toulouse (J. Marcomb, Corpl. Royal Sappers & Miners) good very fine £800-1000

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.

Joseph Marcomb was born in 1786 in the parish of Saint Martin, Helston, in Cornwall, and was trained as a Miner. He later moved to Ireland and subsequently enlisted in the Corps at Clonmel, Tipperary, on 2 June 1813, joining the 2nd Company 4th Battalion under Captain T. Blanshard RE. Ten months later, Marcomb left Portsmouth with this company, on the Warren transport, and on 16 March 1814 landed at Pasajes, near St. Sebastian, 25 miles south-west of Bayonne which was then under siege, having been surrounded by allied forces since 26 February and which surrendered on 26 April. A month after the fall of Bayonne, Marcomb and his company joined the troops for the war with the United States. According to the Corps History by Connolly:

“Captain Blanshard’s company - second of the fourth battalion - which sailed from Bayonne on the 27th May, was transhipped in July from the “Thames” frigate to the “Golden Fleece” transport, and landed at Benedict on the Patuxent on August 19th. Marching with the troops, the company of sixty-two strong was present in the action at Bladensburg on the 24th, and had three taken prisoners, two of whom were wounded. At Washington the company was employed in burning the Senate House, President's Palace, War Office, and other public edifices and establishments. Afterwards the company was present in the action near Baltimore.”

Marcomb’s company afterwards took part in the attack on New Orleans in December 1814 and at the capture of Fort Bowyer in February 1815. His company subsequently joined the army in France, and was attached to the Pontoon Train. After the capitulation of Paris, Marcomb remained with the Army of Occupation at Raismes, the headquarters of the Pontoon Train, and he was promoted to Corporal in 1816. In November 1818 the Company embarked at Calais and returned to England. Marcomb received War Prize monies for service in the U.S.A. campaigns, and was discharged at Woolwich with heart disease, after 6 years service, on 31 May 1819. With a Pension of 1s per day he returned to Helston in Cornwall with his wife and their two children. He later moved to Neath in south Wales and died in Cardiff on 29 March 1865, aged 79. Sold with full research.