My First Crimea Medal

[TracA]

Greetings,

 

Over the past several months I have developed a bit of a medal collecting side-quest: British Campaign Medals. Below is the first one that I have actually done a bit of research on.

 

My Crimea medal is a single clasp, Alma, to Private P. O’Brien, 4th Regiment. I was provided with the applicable medal roll by the seller, so I quickly found the digitized copy at TNA and poked around.

 

Per the wonderful book ‘By Order of Her Majesty’ The Crimea Medal I can say that my example is the smaller large date without full stop obverse, and that it has a pattern 1 Alma clasp. After carefully comparing the impression on Private P. O’Brien’s medal with pages 156 to the top of 158 in ‘By Order of Her Majesty’ I conclude that the medal is officially impressed.

 

What can I say about the recipient? After studying WO 100/26, p. 161, and doing some perusing of that page and others, I am pretty sure that his first name is Patrick. I can also say that he was entitled to the Inkerman clasp, although it is not on his medal. A very helpful member of the British Medals Forum, and one of the authors of ‘By Order of Her Majesty’, informed me that by default Private Patrick O’Brien would also be entitled to the Sebastopol clasp, as apparently it was an automatic qualification by virtue of being at Inkermann. So, what I thought was a two clasper, with only one on the medal itself, turned into a three clasper. The medal recipient’s regiment number? Digitization of the medal roll’s gutter unfortunately cut it off. I originally thought that it was ?634 but revised that. See below.

 

After taking advantage of the free for Remembrance Day weekend at FindMyPast, and flailing around that website, I was able to find a transcript reference to the WO 12 series (WO 12/2232 to be exact) for a Private Patrick O’Brien, 4th (The King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, Service Number 2534 (I believe the field should technically be labeled “regiment number” on the transcript), year 1851. That portion of the WO 12 series is not digitized, so I reached a roadblock. However, looking back at WO 100/26 I could now see the second digit of the regiment number as a 5 instead of a 6, so I settled on a regiment number of 2534. Looking back at the medal roll in combination with what I learned from ‘By Order of Her Majesty’ also told me something else about Private Patrick O’Brien: the ‘W.O.’ at the far right of his entry line indicates that he did not survive to receive his medal. Rather, a next of kin must have applied for the medal and the War Office then forwarded it on the date next to the ‘W.O.’, a date that I cannot fully read. I believe the month is April and the year is 1857, but I cannot decipher the date. The same helpful BMF member referenced above informed me that his research unearthed that the date of War Office issue to the next of kin was the 6th of April 1857, so that cleared-up the date issue for me. 

 

Given the above I thought that I might find Private Patrick O’Brien, 4th (The King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, listed in the London Gazette as a casualty. I searched for ‘P O’brien’ from the 20th of September 1854 to the 31st of December 1858. Alas, I found nothing. Then it dawned on me that the Gazette more than likely would only list casualties as a result of the fighting, and not as a result of disease or harsh winter conditions. He must have survived long enough, however, to qualify for the Inkerman clasp. Once again the wonderful BMF member referenced above came to the rescue and pointed me to the Old Mersey Times website and told me where to look so that I could unearth the sad ending of Private Patrick O’Brien. He died of fever at Scutari Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey sometime between December 31st, 1854 and January 3rd, 1855.

 

Below are some detailed pictures of the single clasp Crimea medal to Private Patrick O’Brien, who actually qualified for three clasps but sadly did not survive to receive his medal. Fortunately a next of kin cared enough to apply for the medal and then received it, officially impressed, from the War Office. I am now honored to hold Private Patrick O’Brien’s, 4th (The King’s Own) Regiment of Foot, Crimea Medal, and thereby keep alive some memory of the man. 

 

The toning on the medal is, to my eye, quite beautiful.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

 

A snip of WO 100/26 p. 161 for the two O’Briens in the regiment.

 

Obverse:

 

 

 

Clasp close-up:

 

 

Reverse:

 

 

Naming. Officially impressed, I believe. It took me quite a while to figure out how best to use my cell phone to capture the naming. The first ‘E’ came out looking very odd because it is actually not a full strike on the medal rim:

 

Suspension bar rivet, right side of the obverse. A good rivet head:

 

 

Suspension bar rivet, left side of the obverse. Looks pretty iffy, and I was informed by an expert that this is a sure sign of the medal having been tampered with by the removal of the clasp carriage and adding of the single Alma clasp. The implication to me is that the War Office would have sent the medal without any clasps.

 

Edited November 13, 2024 by TracA
Added italics

[Alex K]

Hi, well done, some excellent detective work, (with some help from the seasoned researchers), this is the beauty of British campaign medals, the information contained on the rim, opens up an amazing history and brings a long-gone soldiers history back to life, no longer gone and forgotten. 

Regards

Alex k

 

Ps, lovely medal BTW 

Edited November 13, 2024 by Alex K

[TracA]

Greetings Alex K,

 

Thank you for the compliment. Indeed, I would know less if it weren't for the seasoned researchers, and their generosity to assist and give me pointers. Part of what drove me down this side-quest of British campaign medals is, as you say, the naming which in turn allows us to resurrect the soldier's history.

 

Thanks for the compliment on the meal. It really has a gorgeous toning to it that is not done justice by my cell phone camera. I also love the fact that these medals are solid, rather large in diameter, hefty to the feel, and have wonderful detailing.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

[Alex K]

You're welcome

[TracA]

Greetings,

I have decided to post in this thread again because I learned something in the past week, and thought that I would mark it here as a reminder to myself. I am sure that all of you experienced members might chuckle at my revelation:

If you look your man up on the medal roll, go all of the way and look at every page of the roll.

The seller provided a paper copy of WO 100/26, p. 161 and there I stopped. Last week while looking through WO 100/26 for someone else’s name, I found Pte Patrick O’brien two other times. He is listed a second time on p. 182 and a third time on p. 196.

On p. 182 is his full regiment number, 2534, whereas all that I could see on p. 161 was an incomplete number. In addition, pages 179 to 182 are clearly a section of the roll listing the 4th Regiment’s dead (a complete listing? I know not), and next to Pte Patrick O’brien’s name is the day and month of his death. The date is there as well, but it is obscured by the incomplete digitization of the roll’s gutter. On p. 161 my only clue to the fact that Pte Patrick O’brien had died was the “W.O.” next to his name. On p. 182 was the conclusive evidence that he had in fact died. The other fact that I learned from p. 182 was his definitive entitlement to the Sebastopol clasp, as that entitlement is covered from p. 164 to 182.

Page 196 is a reiteration of Pte Patrick O’brien’s entitlement to the Alma and Inkerman clasps, in a section of the medal roll that appears to be a running count of the total number of Alma and Inkerman clasps awarded to members of the 4th Regiment (pages 190 to 199). Once again, here “W.O.” is annotated next to his name with the date which looks to me to be 7/4/57.

Note to self: although it might be time consuming and tedious, look at every page of the medal roll.

All the best,

Tracy

[azyeoman]

There’s nothing better than collecting named British medals as there is, in most cases, a huge amount of info on the recipient - biographical, ancestral, regimental  or ship wise, not to mention The historical aspects of the war,  campaign and its battles.  I’m glad to see you like it! Beware, it’s addictive. 🍻

[TracA]

Hello Azyeoman,

 

Agreed, 100%. I am quickly coming to a point where I have to decide if I want to pay for Ancestry or Find My Past, I am also taking your warning to heart, but I fear that it might be too late.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy 

[Rusty Greaves]

Howdy TracA,  

 

Perhaps this example of the Crimea Medal from the most recent Liverpool Medals catalog might be of interest to you (https://www.liverpoolmedals.com/product/crimea-4-bars-scots-guards-off-impressed?mc_cid=edaa511724&mc_eid=eb61970ca6). It apparently sold very quickly and the realized price is not identified. 

 

 

The high-resolution image of this medal can be zoomed for additional details. 

 

Here is the verbatim description of this item, SKU: J9253: 

 

"Crimea Medal, 4 bars, Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol, James Carver, Scots Fusilier Guards, who died during the war, all confirmed and officially impressed. 

 

Officially impressed: “JAMES CARVER SCOTS FUSr Gds”

 

Medal and all 4 claps confirmed on medal roll and service papers. Lacquered and toned, well preserved condition.

 

With copy service papers.

 

An excellent fully confirmed 4 bar medal as issued posthumously.

 

James died during the war, his papers recalling that he “Died in the East of fever on 5th March 1855”.

 

James Carver was born during 1826 in the parish of St Martins, Hereford, Herefordshire.

 

He had initially signed on for “Unlimited Service” being attracted by a bounty of £4 on 4th November 1846, joining the 44th (Essex) Regiment.

 

Soon afterwards, he transferred over to the Scots Fusiliers Guards, as the Scots Guards were known as since 1830, “Transferred to Scots Fusilier Guards on the 1st August 1846, Authority dated 29th July 1846.”

 

Joining the Scots Fusiliers Guards on 1st August 1846 he would serve with them until his death in service.

 

He was not the most well behaved Guardsman at first, being stationed at Windsor as a Guardsman he would be “apprehended by the Civil Powers for an assault, convicted and sentenced to 6 days of imprisonment.”

 

He was missing from the regiment whilst “In Prison” from 11th October 1849 until 16th October 1849”.

 

This did improve, his papers noting in the “Distinguished Himself” section that he was entitled to “One Penny per diem of Good Conduct Pay from 17th October 1851”.

 

He was then deployed to the “East” in Crimea from 28th February 1854, landing with the Guards Brigade.

 

His papers recall his battle service as: “Present at the Battles of the Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann & Siege of Sebastopol”.

 

A good description of the Scots Guards service in Crimea can be read on their Regimental Website here: https://scotsguards.org/historical-overview/the-crimean-war/

 

This medal would be hard earned, the Scots Guards had been waiting for the opportunity be deployed for decades, since they last were sent out to fight Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, only about half the regiment would return home alive, and would be award 5 Victoria Crosses for the war.

 

They finally got their chance in 1854, when the full Guards Brigade got together and sailed for Crimea, consisting of the 1st Scots Guards, the Grenadier Guards and Coldstream Guards.

 

One of the finest battles fought in the history of all 3 of the Guards Regiments was the Battle of Alma.

 

At the battle, James was amongst a brave bunch, by the end of the battle Ensign Robert Lindsay of the Scots Guards, carrying the Queen’s Colour would earn the very first Army Victoria Cross, alongside Sergeant James McKechnie, Sergeant John Knox and Private William Reynolds, all 4 would get the Victoria Cross that day."

 

 

 

Edited 17 hours ago by Rusty Greaves

[TracA]

Hello Rusty,

 

Great medal and information. Thanks for sharing.

 

There are still many good ones out there with wonderful stories. That site is one of the sites that I check almost daily.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy