AN
EXTREMELY FINE CRIMEA WAR GROUP OF MEDALS, ORDERS AND MILITARIA BELONGING TO A
CAPTAIN OF THE 49TH FOOT WHO SAW A GREAT DEAL OF ACTIONS 1854-56, LEAVING AN
ACCOUNT OF MUCH OF WHAT HE EXPERIENCED, HIS REGIMENT BEING CONSPICUOUS FOR THE
PART THEY PLAYED AT THE BATTLE OF INKERMAN IN PARTICULAR
CRIMEA 1854-56, 2 CLASPS, INKERMANN, SEBASTOPOL ‘CAPTN. G.H. LAMB. 49TH.
REGT.’, FRANCE, SECOND EMPIRE, LEGION D’HONNEUR CHEVALIER'S
BREAST BADGE, SILVER, GOLD, AND ENAMEL, TURKEY, OTTOMAN EMPIRE, ORDER OF THE
MEDJIDIEH, FIFTH CLASS BREAST BADGE, SILVER, GOLD AND ENAMEL, TURKISH CRIMEA,
SARDINIAN TYPE ‘CAPTN. LAMB 49TH. REGT.’ all with top
silver riband buckles, mounted in a large glazed display frame with the
following:
a) An extremely fine framed parchment scroll entitled
'The Military Services of George Henry Lamb' This listing his military service
from being Gazetted Ensign in December 1848. Including his entire service
during the Crimean war, from embarking for service in March 1854 until he
returned home in July 1856. It also lists the large battles and actions he took
part in and his Awards.
b) An extremely fine and very scarce 1843-1855
pattern 49th Foot Officers Sword Belt Plate in gilt. This comprising a crowned
circular strap ' Princess Charlotte of Wales' enclosing 'Hertfordshire' with
'49', with battle honours 'Egmont-op-Zee', 'Copenhagen', 'Queenstown' and
'China', with the Royal Dragon of China below.
Plate complete with its rarely seen original protective leather cover to the
rear, this with its even rarer 49th Foot paper label with the Royal
Dragon of China and Lamb’s name and 49th in ink to leather. Plate
shows some minor wear and knocks. A quite superb pierce actually worn during
the Crimea war.
c) A fine pair of 49th Foot Officer’s turnback
ornaments in cloth and bullion, these removed from the turnback’s on the tails
of Lambs tunic.
4) Silk embroidered 'Crimea' Standard Battle-honour,
another fine looking piece with minor wear
George Henry Lamb, was born circa 1829. A native of
Basingstoke, after attending the Royal Military College, he was Commissioned
Ensign, 49th Foot, 15 December 1848. Promoted Lieutenant, 20 January 1851, he
embarked with the Regiment for the Crimea on 28 March 1854, landing at Scutari
on 19 April. He left with the Regiment for Varna on 19 June, arriving on 21
June but was taken ill with fever on 2 August and invalided to Buyukdere on 12
August but on recovery, sailed for Varna on 12 September 1854. His Regiment had
already left for the Crimea and on 6 October he embarked to join them. Landing
at Balaclava on 9 October, he missed the battle of Alma, fought on 20
September, where his Regiment was lightly engaged. Still at Balaclava when the
great battle was fought, he tells how from the heights, he was witness to the
great cavalry charges of the Heavy and Light Brigades and the following day; 26
October 1854, was present in position at Inkerman when the Russian sortie was
made against elements of the De Lacy Evans's 2nd Division, of which the 49th
Foot formed a part. During this action that lasted some three hours and often called The Battle of Little Inkerman, the
Russians attacks were repulsed.
On 5 November, Lamb was present at the great Battle
of Inkerman, where the 49th would cover itself with glory but at
great cost. Here Adams's Brigade (41st, 47th and 49th
Foot) fought with unsurpassed gallantry during the infamous 'Soldier's Battle'
At about 7 a.m., Adams weak Brigade held the Sandbag Battery against a force of
10,000 Russian infantry until reinforced by two battalions of Guards. Bitterly
contested throughout the day, the Sandbag Battery was nicknamed 'The Abattoir'
by French observers. Going into battle with a strength of 453 officers and men,
they lost 157 killed and wounded and amongst the highest number of casualties
suffered by any British Regiments.
Promoted Captain, 20 December 1854, Lamb served
throughout the siege of Sebastopol. Taking part in the Capture of the Rifle
Pits, 19 April 1855; the First Assault on the
Grand Redan, 18 June 1855; and the Final Assault
on the Redan, 8 September 1855. Accounts of these by Lamb, particularly
the latter and the fall of Sebastopol follow but regarding the Final Assault on the Redan, he would write in his diary:
“As we all anticipated the Grand Event took place
today. The Division paraded at 6:00am and marched off at 6:30am. At 12:00pm the
French made one bound into the Malakoff which was theirs in five minutes. We
then went at the Redan and partially succeeded, but in consequence of the
severe flanking fire on us were driven back with very great loss in Officers
and Men. Meantime the musketry of the Malakoff was tremendous, a terrible fight
coming on in the town which continued until 6:00pm, at which point we were
relieved and returned to camp.”
On Sebastopol falling, he would write; “The Fall of Sebastopol took place. Hip, Hip, Hurray! Throughout the night frightful explosions took place in different parts of the Redan and Malakoff. At daybreak we were turned out and marched to the 5th Parallel, and on our way down were told that the Russians had vacated the south side entirely! The bridge broken up and the Men-of-Wars sunk- Cheers, boys, Cheers! Roamed all over the Redan which is a most extraordinary town as it were, and then walked into Sebastopol. The whole place torn down by our shells. The plunder, trophies, and guns taken is enormous. I remained out all night, and the men lit large fires.”
Captain Lamb would remain in the Crimea until embarking
for Britain on 17 June 1856, he arrived at Spithead on 12 July 1856. In
addition to the British and Turkish Crimea medals, Captain Lamb was further
honoured with the awards of the French Legion d’Honneur Chevalier's and the
Turkish Order of the Medjidie, Fifth Class. One of a handful of 49th
Foot Officers to receive both awards. Captain Lamb resigned his Commission on 18
February 1857 and married Caroline Locke at Christchurch on 15 April the same
year. He died at Kingsclere, Newbury on 2 November 1903, aged 74. A local
newspaper recorded that he was “Interred in Headly Churchyard on Thursday
November 5th (Inkerman Day).”
CAPTAIN LAMB’S
PUBLISHED SERVICE
A number
of local newspapers published lengthy articles of a congratulatory dinner in
honour of Captain Lamb when he returned home to Basingstoke in August 1856.
Lamb brought with him two fellow Officers of the 49th, C E Gibson
and H D Scoones, the dinner at the Town Hall, attended by the Mayor and 120 of
the ‘elite’ of the neighbourhood
Of these,
the one published in the Berkshire Chronicle, 23 August 1856 is
particularly interesting as it contains various extracts from letters written
by Lamb from, the Crimea, as well as anecdotes by himself. Extracts from the
article:
“.. and
feelings of the gallant officer’s father must have been most enviable as the
rode in the carriage to the Twon Hall with his son and several of his brother
officers and heard the loud and hearty English cheers which greeted their
arrival. We here may mention that Captain Lamb, in addition to the several
medals awarded by his sovereign, was one of the few officers who had the order
of Medjidie conferred upon him by the Sultan of Turkey”
The article goes on to tell how: (SEE PICS)
Anecdotes
etc are spread throughout the article, which is far too big to copy in full but
including:
“The first
letter illustrated his feelings in the first engagement in which he was
occupied. He sais ‘It was then that I felt in such a state of excitement,
now rushing up the hill and down a ravine after these fellows, that although
shells and musket balls were flying about me and all of us like bees, yet I
thought no more of them , than had they been so many cricket balls’. Here
you see the feelings of the young officer after his first engagement and then
the letter proceeds to show that though ager and hot when the enemy were in
sight, yet other feelings prevailed when he saw brother officers and men
falling about him. In his second letter, which I only regret time would not
allow me to read, in a most graphic manner does he describe the fight at Inkerman,
in which he was immediately engaged. The death of Major Walton, his superior
officer, who received a fatal shot in the abdomen while on horseback, he
alluded to most touchingly. The Major looked at the Captain after he was
wounded and in mournful accents said ‘What will become of my poor Regiment’
and his last words were ‘Lamb, keep the men together as well as you can’. ‘I
could have cried’ said the writer at the time, ‘but it was useless
waiting a moment, although in my tent in the evening I shed bitter tears of
grief’
Captain
Lamb himself would tell how: (SEE PICS)
A letter from Captain Lamb, sent from was then Sebastopol on 10 September 1855, two days after the final assault on the Redan, was then read in full (SEE PICS)
Condition
generally GVF, a little contact wear to Crimea pair, which are contemporarily engraved in large serif capitals. Legion d’Honneur with the oft seen enamel damage to
tips. Digital research with this group will be sent to buyer by Wetransfer
A
really quite superb group of medals and artifacts belonging to a Crimean War
veteran
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