A GREATLY IMPORTANT THREE CLASP CRIMEA MEDAL & TURKISH CRIMEA (British Issue)

SEBASTOPOL
INKERMANN
BALAKLAVA


A RARE "CONFIRMED" HEAVY BRIGADE CHARGER

To:
944. Sergt. JOHN KIDNEY. 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. (WOUNDED IN THE CHARGE OF THE HEAVY BRIGADE)
(25th October 1854)

[BIOGRAPHY]
John Kidney was born in 1827 and prior to joining the British Army he had been a farmer from, MAGRACROSS, DRUMCOLHAN, Co.FERMANAGH, IRELAND. He enlisted into the 6th Dragoons on 29th August 1846 aged 19 and served with the 6th throughout the Crimean War. On March 1858 he is seen re-enlisting as No.65 L/Cpl JOHN KIDNEY, 5th Lancers with whom he served until he was discharge at his own request aged 43 on 20th January 1870.
He had served in the two units for a total of 25 years & 324 days. (Final discharge papers, Canterbury, 9th to the 23rd July 1872)
In 1869 he was 'busted' down to Private for an unknown misdemenor. His previous conduct was shown as "Very Good" and he was in possession of 5 good conduct stripes. However,he appears in the regimental defaulters book on two occasions and is shown as being twice court marshalled. (Hence no L.S.G.C. medal)

[DESCRIPTION & NAMING]
The medal retains its rare ORIGINAL RIBBON.

Condition wise, this is a classic. It's a typically well loved and proudly worn medal of a Wounded but surviving Heavy Brigade Charger. As is the case with the typically well used Waterloo medals one sees, in Victorian England, the proud Crimea veterans also wore their medals on their jackets for many years, as the ownership of the medals was a total guarantee of a free pint in any pub in the land in exchange for a yarn about the battles.
Looking at his medal it is clear that John Kidney was a regular at the bar as he would have been able to give a thrilling first hand account of the Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava. If only the medal could speak !

The medal is in overall Good Fine condition with extensive surface marks on both obverse & reverse from long time contact with a Turkish Crimea Medal.

General light edge bumping is present on the rims and there is a loss of one right side rivet & the lower tab between Balaklava & Inkermann. The medal being on its original ribbon is however clearly much as it was on the last day that John Kidney wore it.
A life of action in his younger days and clearly well lived and celebrated into his older age.






[NAMING]
John Kidney is a 100% unique name on the entire Crimea Roll.

The medal is correctly & contemporarily named in the normal serifed block capitals style.
The naming characteristically shows some normal areas of contact loss at the 3 o'clock & 9 o'clock positions.( shown in red)

No.(944) SERJt JOHN KIDNE(Y) (6th) DNs.

(The areas of contact loss are shown in red, there are however still light remains of the 9 in the service number & Y of Kidney)

[THE BACKGROUND TO A "PROVEN" HEAVY CHARGER]
Because of the methods of recording, the vast vast majority of Crimea medals to members of the Heavy Brigade are only described as either "Effective During the Period" or at best "Probably Rode in The Charge" .....Therefore, the ONLY way to conclusively prove that a man actually rode in the Charge of The Heavy Brigade is:
(a) Being a man known to have ridden through his position, other gallantry awards or recorded history.
or
(b) Via the presence of his name on the casualty rolls.

The "Heavy Brigade" roll for 6th Dragoons in the recent "Forgotten Heroes" book lists 249 men who could potentially have taken part in the charge....however...there are ONLY 21 men listed as being: "Provably Present in the Charge"

Of those 21 men, there were:
KILLED: 2
SEVERELY WOUNDED: 5
(Of whom 2 were dangerously wounded.)
SLIGHTLY WOUNDED: 8 (including John Kidney)
& KNOWN TO HAVE RIDDEN: 6

The balance of 230 men are thus all shown as "Probably Rode" or "Effective During the Period" but without any confirmation.

Therefore ....the current medal to Sgt John Kidney is one of ONLY 21 awards to a provable Heavy Brigade Charger from 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoon Guards and one of only 13 to a wounded man of the regiment. There was a total of 78 men killed or wounded in the Heavy Brigade charge.

The then Cpl John Kidney was probably positioned with the 2nd Squadron of 6th Dragoons right in the First Line to the right of 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys) . As such and being right at the front of the action as well as sustaining most casualties the unit lost 35 horses, more than any other. It has been calculated that there were only 709 men in the Charge of the Heavy Brigade.

Hence, a VERY seriously desirable & classic medal. with VERY RARE surviving service & discharge papers. Also three separate newspaper entries (inc Leicestershire Mercury & Carlisle Journal) these confirming his wounding in the charge on 25th October 1854.
I don't know where we would get another confirmed charger with full papers and this level of contemporary coverage.
A truly extraordinary medal !

SOLD