Canada General Service Medal 1866-70, 1 clasp, Red River 1870 To PRIVATE J. SMITH, 1ST BATTALION 60TH REGIMENT (THE POST 1880 1ST BATTALION KING’S ROYAL RI

PRIVATE J. SMITH, 1ST BATTALION 60TH REGIMENT (THE POST 1880 1ST BATTALION KING’S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS). Canada General Service Medal 1866-70, 1 clasp, Red River 1870 (officially impressed in the usual style to the British Army, plain unserifed capitals: 946 PTE. J. SMITH, 1 : 60 : R.R.). Attractively toned, Almost Extremely Fine and a rare clasp to a British Army recipient.

Medal accompanied by copied medal rolls (original and published), which confirm 946 Private John Smith as being entitled to the Canada General Service Medal with Red River 1870 clasp, the original roll noting that Private Smith served “1870 with R.R. Expedition from May to October”, and that, during the campaign, his commanding officer was a Captain N.W. Watson. The original roll also confirms that Private Smith’s medal was sent to him at Guyhirn, Wisbeach (where Smith was living at the time the medal was authorised in 1899). Only 158 Red River clasps to the British Army, of which 124 were awarded to the KRRC (three of these being in combination with the Fenian Raid 1870 clasp). Medal also accompanied by copied extracts from the quarterly pay list for the 1st Battalion KRRC for the periods January – March 1861 (Smith’s enlistment) and 1876-77 (discharged) and extracts from the census returns for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1881 and 1891.

John Smith was born in Wisbeach, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire circa 1835. He is recorded in the 1841 census as the 6 year old son of the 35 year old Thomas Smith, an agricultural labourer, and his 40 year old wife Anne. The 1851 census records John Smith as a 15 year old boy living in the household of a 53 year old farmer by the name of Joseph Peek, in the parish of St Mary, Wisbeach, and presumably employed by Joseph Peek as an agricultural labourer or household servant. John Smith enlisted into the 1st Battalion KRRC on 5/1/1861, the 1861 census recording him as a 26 year old Private in the KRRC stationed at The Barracks, Winchester. John Smith was discharged “free” on 30/5/1876. The 1881 census records John Smith’s mother, Anne, as the 65 year old wife of a 74 year old carpenter by the name of Robert Oldfield (Anne’s first husband had presumably died by this stage). The 1891 census records John Smith as a 55 year old agricultural labourer living in the hamlet of Guyhirn, Parish of St Mary, Wisbeach, with his 74 year old mother, Anne Oldfield, who in the 1891 census is recorded as being the head of the household, and so had presumably been widowed for a second time.

NOTE: There is no record in the Hart’s Army Lists for the period of a Captain N.W. Watson serving with the 60th KRRC. There was, however, and Captain N.W. Wallace, who is confirmed on the medal roll as having served with the 60th Foot in the 1860 Red River expedition and commanded “B” Company during that campaign. So perhaps a clerical error in the original roll. Alternatively, the Captain N.W. Watson may, perhaps, have been a Canadian Militia officer?

Another Canada General Service medal with Red River clasp awarded to the 60th Foot was sold by Dix Noonan Webb on 16th July 2020, lot 462. That medal realised £3,200 plus fees (£4,160 approx).