THE RARE POSTHUMOUS MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1793-1814 TO ENSIGN (LATER LIEUTENANT) THOMAS CRAWLEY, 2ND BATTALION 59TH (2ND NOTTINGHAMSHIRE) REGIMENT (THE POST 1880 2ND BATTALION EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT), DISCHARGED AS A RESULT OF SERIOUS

THE RARE POSTHUMOUS MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1793-1814 TO ENSIGN (LATER LIEUTENANT) THOMAS CRAWLEY, 2ND BATTALION 59TH (2ND NOTTINGHAMSHIRE) REGIMENT (THE POST 1880 2ND BATTALION EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT), DISCHARGED AS A RESULT OF SERIOUS WOUNDS RECEIVED DURING THE SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF THE FORTRESS OF SAN SEBASTIAN IN AUGUST 1813, AND WHO HAD THE DISTINCTION OF BEING ONE OF WELLINGTON’S “SHARPES”, MEN WHO, LIKE THE FICTIONAL HERO SHARPE, WERE COMMISSIONED FROM THE RANKS FOR GALLANTRY DURING THE PENINSULAR WAR. CRAWLEY ALSO HAD THE UNIQUE DISTINCTION, AMONGST THAT SELECT GROUP OF MEN COMMISSIONED FROM THE RANKS DURING THE PENINSULAR WAR, OF BEING THE ONLY MAN COMMISSIONED FROM THE RANKS OF THE 59TH FOOT DURING THAT CAMPAIGN . Military General Service Medal 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Vittoria, St. Sebastian (officially engraved naming, engraved by Hunt & Roskell in sloping serifed capitals: ENSIGN. T. CRAWLEY. 59th. FOOT.). Attractively toned, Almost Extremely Fine to Extremely Fine and with a length of original ribbon.

The award of the Naval General Service Medals 1793-1840 and of the Military General Service Medal 1793-1814, both retrospective awards, were not actually announced until 1st June 1847, and it was not until June 1848 that it was confirmed that the medals were available for distribution, and January 1849 before the medals first began to be distributed. Initially, as was also the case with the previously issued Waterloo Medal, only surviving, elIgible veterans were entitled to a medal, and medals had to be applied for either personally by the veteran concerned or by their agent. However, although not officially permitted, it is known that some families did manage to obtain posthumous awards of the Waterloo, Naval and Military General Service Medals named to their deceased relatives, as a result of the intervention of influential individuals (at least one Waterloo Medal was known to have been obtained following the intervention of the Duke of Wellington). Thomas Crawley, with his distinguished military service, would undoubtedly have been a sympathetic case for consideration with regard to a posthumous medal, the claim for which perhaps submitted by an important patron on behalf of one of Crawley’s four sons, three of whom appear to have been serving in the army at the time of his death and immediately after the announcement of the award of the Military General Service Medal (the 1846 Hart’s Army List records a Lieutenant Thomas Crawley, 15th Dragoons, a Lieutenant Richard Crawley, 80th Foot, and two Henry Crawleys, a Captain in the Royal Engineers and a Captain in the 20th Foot).

Thomas Crawley is not included in the roll of recipients for the Military General Service Medal (original or published), confirming that his medal was a late claim, authorised after the roll of recipients had been drawn up and awarded after his death in 1844, and probably issued circa 1852 onwards.

The Royal Mint ceased producing officially named medals, with impressed naming, circa February 1851. After that date the task of naming the medals was subcontracted to Hunt & Roskell, who were thereafter responsible for issuing late issue or replacement medals to entitled recipients. A small number of late issue and replacement Naval and Military General Service Medals, with officially engraved naming by Hunt & Roskell, are recorded as having survived, including the duplicate Naval General Service Medal with 12 Octr. 1798 clasp to Private John Haycock, Royal Marines (whose medal roll entry bears the annotation “duplicate prepared”) and the duplicate Military General Service Medal with 3 clasps awarded to Captain H.C. Lowther, 7th Hussars (lot 7 in the Spink auction of 29/11/2023). Surviving late issue or duplicate awards of both the Naval and Military General Service Medals with engraved naming by Hunt & Roskell are, however, very rare, few recorded as having survived, and posthumous awards are extremely rare.

In addition to late issue medals with Hunt & Roskel naming, other examples of the Military General Service Medal 1793-1840 named in various styles continued to be awarded for many years after the awarding of medals had been theoretically officially discontinued. One remarkable example of a late issue medal with Nive clasp, awarded to a Captain James Gammell of the 59th Foot, that was not awarded until 1889, some 75 years after the battle in which he participated and some 38 years after the mint theoretically ceased producing officially named medals. That medal, named in the style of the Egypt Medal 1882-89, along with Captain Gammells 1887 Jubilee Medal, was sold by Spink (lot 104, 24/4/2025), a copy of the description for that lot accompanies Crawley’s medal,

Medal accompanied by extract from John A Hall’s “A History of the Peninsular War” (volume 8, Officers Killed and Wounded), copied extracts from Army Lists of the period, extract from the “Return of the Names of the Officers in the Army Who Received Pensions”, extract 1821 Irish census, extract from British Army Officer’s Widows Pension Form for Crawley, copied newspaper article re. Thomas Crawley’s death in 1844, and other copied research.

Thomas Crawley, born circa 1784 in Parsonstown, near Birr, King’s County (now county Offaly), enlisted into the 59th Foot in October 1807 and by the time that he was first commissioned Ensign had been promoted to the rank of Sergeant-Major. Army lists of the period record Thomas Crawley as having been first commissioned Ensign and Adjutant, 59th Foot 29/9/1812 (London Gazette 26/9/1812), presumably as a reward for gallantry, being promoted Lieutenant and Adjutant, 24/5/1814, and retiring on half pay with the rank of Lieutenant and Adjutant, as a result wounds, on 25/5/1816. The 1818 Return of Officers Receiving Pensions for Loss of Limbs or Wounds confirms Crawley as having been granted a pension of £70 per annum for wounds received at St Sebastian in 1813, his pension commencing on 26/7/1814.

Thomas Crawley is recorded as having married at Dublin on 23/4/1810. He had five children, and is recorded in the 1821 Irish census as being resident in Newbridge Street, Birr, King’s County (now Offaly), Ireland, with his 30 year old wife Elizabeth and three of their sons, Henry, Thomas and Richard, aged ten, three and one respectively.

There is a letter in the Irish National Archives written by Thomas Crawley dated 3/12/1821, after his retirement from the army, seeking employment in the recently formed Irish police force, the Irish Constabulary “Letter from Thomas Crawley, Parsonstown (Birr), King’s County (County Offaly), formerly Lieutenant and Adjutant of 59th Regiment of Foot, to William Gregory, Under Secretary, Dublin Castle, renewing earlier request to be appointed to police.” (the Irish Constabulary, raised in 1816, was retitled the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1867 and disbanded in 1922).

Lieutenant Crawley’s death on 4/11/1844, three years before the retrospective award of the Military General Service Medal was announced, and five years before the first medals were distributed, was widely report in newspapers of the day. The following announcement regarding his death was published in the Wexford Conservative of Saturday 15 November 1844:

“A very alarming instance of sudden death occurred in Parsonstown on Monday last. Thomas Crawley, aged 59 years, formerly a Lieutenant in the 59th Regiment of Foot, who invariably enjoyed very good health, rose earlier than ususal on that morning, went to an apothecary’s shop and procured an emetic. He returned to his lodgings and while in the act of discharging his stomach, he fell on the floor and expired. Disease of the heart was the immediate cause of death. The deceased was a native of Parsonstown, and had raised himself from the ranks by his talents and character. He served during the Peninsular War and received a severe wound in the right ankle, we believe either at the fall of St Sebastian or the storming of Badajoz. He has left four sons all of whom hold commissions in Her Majesty’s service and are at present with their regiments in Ireland.”

Correspondence in Crawley’s British Army Officer’s Widows Pension file concerning the balance of his pension due to his estate, confirms Crawley’s date of death as 4th November 1844 (mis-transcribed by FindMyPast as 4th April 1844).

The 2nd Battalion 59th Foot landed in the Peninsula at Corunna between 27th October and 7th November 1808. On disembarking, the 59th Regiment were brigaded with the 51st and 76th Regiments under Lieutenant-General James Leith. That brigade encountered enormous difficulties once ashore, with the result that it was severely delayed in attempting to march north and meet up with the force under Lieutenant-General John Moore, then retreating south towards Corunna. Conflicting orders led to the 59th marching and counter-marching in atrocious winter weather. As a result, after linking up with Moore’s force and retreating to Corunna, only some 300 officers and men of the 59th Foot were fit for duty when the battle of Corunna was fought on 16/1/1809. Crawley was amongst the invalids, and as a result did not qualify for that clasp. After Corunna the 59th embarked for England, landing there in January 1809. In July 1809 the 59th sailed for Europe, where they took part in the disastrous Walcheren campaign (no clasps awarded for this operation). 59th returned to the Peninsula, setting sail for Lisbon in March 1813. In the Peninsula the 59th was not actively engaged against French forces until the battle of Vittoria, 21/6/1813.

At Vittoria the 2nd Battalion 59th Foot lost some 149 officers and men killed and wounded, including the battalion’s commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Fane, mortally wounded by a canon ball, and the battalion’s second in command, Major John Weir, also mortally wounded.

The 2nd Battalion 59th Foot next saw extensive service during the siege and capture of St Sebastian, July-September 1813, Ensign Crawley being severely wounded as a result of a gun shot wound to the right ankle during one of the initial attacks on the fortress of St Sebastian, on 25/8/1813. Crawley’s battalion suffering a total of 30 casualties during that assault, which faltered even before the men had left their trenches. As a result of his wound, Crawley missed the large scale assault on St Sebastian on 31/8/1813, during which the 2nd Battalion 59th Foot suffered more casualties than any other battalion taking part in that action, losing a total of 350 officers and men killed and wounded, including 118 killed in action.

Crawley was subsequently promoted Lieutenant and Adjutant, 24/5/1814, nine months after being wounded at St Sebastian, his promotion to Lieutenant again no doubt being as a reward for gallantry in action.