A Collection of Medals to the 42nd Highlanders and 73rd Foot (Black Watch)

Military General Service 1793-1814, 9 clasps, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse (Paul Peattie, 42nd Foot) polished, otherwise good very fine £2800-3200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals to the 42nd Highlanders and 73rd Foot (Black Watch).

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Provenance: W. E. Gray Collection 1898; Glendining’s, June 1925.

Paul Peattie was born at St Andrews, Fife, in 1785, and enlisted into the 42nd Foot on 10 August 1803, having 9 years previous service in the Fencibles. He served with the 2nd Battalion in the Peninsular from 1810 and transferred to the 1st Battalion in 1812. He was wounded in the side during the storming of the great fortress at Burgos on 19 September 1812.

‘The main body of the assaulting force was composed of Pack’s Portuguese, who were assisted by the whole of the 1/42nd and by the flank companies of Stirling’s brigade of the 1st Division, to which the Black Watch belonged... the storm succeeded, but with vast and unnecessary loss of life, and not in the way in which Wellington intended. It was bright moonlight, and the firing party, when coming up over the crest, were at once detected by the French, who opened a very heavy fire upon them. The Highlanders commenced to reply while still 150 yards away, and then advanced firing till they came close up to the work, where they remained for a quarter of an hour, entirely exposed and suffering terribly. Having lost half their numbers they finally dispersed, but not till after the main attack had failed... the whole affair would have been a failure, but for the assault on the gorge. Here, the three light companies , 140 men, were led by Somers Cocks, recently promoted to a majority in the 1/79th.’

The light companies broke through the palisades at the rear, driving out the French battalion there and the whole defence of the hornwork collapsed. The allied force had 421 killed and wounded in the operation, of whom 204 were in Peattie’s battalion. Peattie served throughout the remainder of the Peninsular campaign, through to the battle of Toulouse, where the losses were again severe. The 42nd casualties amounted to 433 officers and men, the greatest loss of any unit present. He was discharged on 31 October 1814, admitted to Chelsea Hospital in March 1852, and died in Edinburgh on 15 March 1875. Sold with copied pension papers and other research.