Gold, Silver, and Bronze: A Brunswick Hussar’s Waterloo Grand Slam!

[Chris Boonzaier]

From Rick...

Note: the “Waterloo Ducat” is FOR DISPLAY only with the NAMED PAIR of 1 of the 8 recipients.

No harm has been done to the Dutch gold piece as a coin—it rests in a removable frame, as a “transformer” capable of being worn as a jewelry pendant or on the nicely crafted matching gold “medal suspension.”

The story behind that peculiar “decoration” is that Duke Friedrich Wilhelm of Brunswick (killed in action at Quatrebras 16 June 1815) had given some 1814 Dutch gold coins to his sons the Princes Carl and Wilhelm. They decided to hand these out to enlisted men who had distinguished themselves at the Waterloo battles, and 8 Brunswickers were so decorated at Clichy near Paris on 13 August 1815.

The 8 Brunswick soldiers were:

Sergeant Eggeling of the Hussar Regiment

Uhlan Lindemann of the Uhlan Squadron

Bombardier Buchner/Büchner of the Foot Battery

Soldat Heilemann of the Leib-Bataillon

Sergeant Fischer of the 1^st Light/Jäger Battalion

Sergeant Kinkel of the 1^st Line Battalion

Sergeant Fuhr of the 2^nd Line Battalion, and

Sergeant Müller of the 3^rd Line Battalion

The Brunswick Waterloo Medal and Hannover Guelphic/? Civil Merit Medal here are named to the first named above—Sergeant Wilhelm Eggeling of the Hussar Regiment.

Eggeling does NOT appear on the Guelphic Medals Roll—which MAY be simply because only Hanoverians were listed. Or it is an anomalous Civil Merit Medal (Roll as yet untranscribed) bearing his rank and unit. The only way to tell the two Hanoverian Medals apart were by the rim inscriptions. There are discrepancies of 8 to 10 on the numbers of Guelph Medals awarded, with sources agreeing that 503 went to members of the King’s German legion and 82 to members of the Hanoverian army. That leaves 8 or 10… POSSIBLY to “uncounted” non-Hanoverians like Eggeling.

Duke Wilhelm of Brunswick on 16 June 1834 authorized the 6 surviving “Waterloo Ehren-Dukaten” recipients (Buchner/Büchner and Kinkel had died in the interim) to receive the Merit Cross 2^nd Class of the Brunswick House Order of Henry the Lion in place of the dangling Dutch coins. Since the insignia of the Henry the Lion Order had to be returned on a recipient’s death, Sergeant Eggeling’s post-1834 trio no longer exists…

just his issued pair of named medals—one as potentially rare as the long lost Ducat represented here by this lovely display recreation of his golden reward using an original gold coin. 5,607 Brunswick Waterloo Medals, made out of bronze from captured French cannons, were awarded (like the British Waterloo Medals, to living recipients or next of kin of deceased soldiers) in 1818.

Shared by the Traveling Museum, to whose members many thanks are owed for allowing their treasures to be Epsonized. My thanks also to Chris for posting since I am not online. Rick Research

Sources:

Andreas Thies and Wilhelm Hapke, “Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Königreiches Hannover,” 1981.

Aug. Finkam, “Die an Braunschweiger und Hannoveraner verliehenen Ehrenzeichen,” 1901

Roger Reckewell and Jens Fischer, “Orden, Ehren- und Abzeichen des Herzogtums Braunschweig-Lüneburg von 1809 bis 1918,” 1987.

[Chris Boonzaier]

2

[army historian]

Wow - extraordinary! Congratulations Chris.

[peter monahan]

Fabulous! Somebody did very well indeed out of Father Christmas. [envious tone, slight drooling] thanks for sharing.

Peter