MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1793-1814 AWARDED TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR ROBERT ARBUTHNOT K.C,B., MILITARY SECRETARY TO LORD BERESFORD DURING THE PENINSULAR WAR, LATER HONORARY COLONEL, 76TH FOOT, WHO WAS ALSO AWARDED AN ARMY GOLD CROSS WITH THREE

THE IMPORTANT MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1793-1814 AWARDED TO LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR ROBERT ARBUTHNOT K.C,B., MILITARY SECRETARY TO LORD BERESFORD DURING THE PENINSULAR WAR, LATER HONORARY COLONEL, 76TH FOOT, WHO WAS ALSO AWARDED AN ARMY GOLD CROSS WITH THREE CLASPS FOR SERVICE DURING THE PENINSULAR WAR (THE CROSS FOR BUSACO, ALBUHERA, BADAJOZ AND NIVELLE, AND WITH CLASPS FOR NIVE, ORTHES AND TOULOUSE).

PRIOR TO THE PENINSULAR WAR ARBUTHNOT SAW SERVICE IN IRELAND DURING THE 1798 REBELLION AGAINST THE COMBINED REBEL AND FRENCH FORCE COMMANDED BY GENERAL HUMBERT AT THE BATTLE OF BALLINAMUCK (THE FINAL MAJOR ENGAGEMENT OF THE 1798 REBELLION AND THE LAST PITCHED BATTLE EVER FOUGHT ON IRISH SOIL), AT THE CAPTURE OF THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE IN 1806 UNDER GENERAL SIR DAVID BAIRD AND DURING GENERAL BERESFORD’S DISASTROUS SOUTH AMERICAN EXPEDITION OF 1806, WHERE HE TOOK PART IN THE CAPTURE OF BUENOS AIRES, SUBSEQUENTLY BEING TAKEN PRISONER OF WAR AND SPENDING 18 MONTHS IN CAPTIVITY.

Military General Service Medal 1793-1814, 2 clasps, Corunna, Ciudad Rodrigo (officially named, impressed in serifed capital letters: SIR R. ARBUTHNOT, K.C.B. A.D.C.).

Attractively toned, Extremely Fine and virtually as struck, contained in a custom made velvet lined blue leather case with gilt title to lid “Sir Robert Arbuthnot, K.C.B., K.T.S., Military Secretary to Lord Beresford”.

PROVENANCE: Glendining’s 16 September 1991 (when sold with an old copy Army Gold Cross with three clasps, which is not known to have survived), and Dix Noonan Webb 29 March 2000, lot 9.

Medal accompanied by an extensive file of copied research, along with copied extracts Army Gold Cross and Military General Service Medal rolls (original and published) confirming Military General Service Medal and clasps and Army Gold Cross with 3 clasps, Arbuthnot being recorded in the published Military General Service Medal roll as an officer in the 20th Light Dragoons, that medal roll noting that he was “20th L.D. and Chasseurs Britanniques, Gold Cross and 3 bars, Brigadier-General in the Portuguese Service, Knight Commander of the Tower and Sword, Military Secretary to Lord Beresford, British Officer in Portuguese Army List.

Lieutenant General Sir Robert Arbuthnot, K.C.B. (1773-1853) was the fourth son of John Arbuthnot, of Rockfleet, County Mayo, and brother of the Rt. Hon. Charles Arbuthnot (1767-1850), the diplomat and politician (see Dictionary of National Biography), and of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Arbuthnot (776-1849, see Dictionary of National Biography). He entered the army as a Cornet in the 23rd Light Dragoons on 1/1/1797, and was promoted Lieutenant, 1/6/1797, Captain, 20/8/1802, Major, 13/4/1809, Lieutenant-Colonel 22/5/1811, transferring to the Coldstream Guards with that rank, 25/7/1814, promoted Colonel, 19/7/1821, Major-General, 22/7/1830 and Lieutenant-General 23/11/1841.

General Arbuthnot first saw active service in Ireland during the 1798 Rebellion, taking part in the battle of Ballinamuck, which saw the comprehensive defeat of a combined rebel and French force commanded by General Humbert. Arbuthnot was subsequently appointed Aide-de-Camp to General Wilford, but was placed on half pay on the reduction of his regiment, 24/12/1802. He was reinstated to full pay in the 20th Light Dragoons, 24/3/1805 and subsequently served with his regiment at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope under General Sir David Baird in 1806, and accompanied the expedition to South America on the staff of General Beresford in 1806. In South America he took part in the action previous to the surrender and capture of Buenos Aires, and in two other engagements prior to the re-capture of Buenos Aires by the Spaniards, whereupon, following a general surrender, with the rest of the troops under Beresfords command, he was made a prisoner of war for eighteen months, and marched into the interior of the country upwards of 1,000 miles.

On his return to Europe in December 1807, Arbuthnot again joined Beresfords Staff at the island of Madeira, and subsequently went with Beresford to Portugal where he was appointed one of the Commissioners for the execution of the Convention of Cintra. After the final evacuation of the French from Lisbon, he was appointed Commandant of the city and filled the situation of Town Major. He took part in the campaign of 1808 under Lieutenant-General Moore, and was present at the battle of Corunna. On 10/3/1809 he exchanged from the 20th Light Dragoons to the Chasseurs Brittaniques, and having accompanied Lord Beresford to Portugal, he obtained the rank of Major in the British service and Lieutenant-Colonel in the Portuguese Army, 13/4/1809,

In the campaign of 1809 he was present at the operations on the Douro during May, when the French army under Marshal Soult was driven out of Oporto, Lord Beresford, at the head of a combined force of British and Portuguese troops driving the opposing French forces back into Galicia. Arbuthnot then remained with the army which went into winter quarters after the battle of Talavera. In the campaign of 1810 he was with the Army of the Frontier of Portugal during Marshal Massenas operations against Ciudad Rodrigo, on the Coa, and the Fortress of Almeida. He was present at the battle of Busaco on the 27th September, and during that winter in the fortified lines near Lisbon, and in the front at Santarem, until the French finally evacuated their position.

In the campaign of 1811 Arbuthnot was actively employed in the Alentejo and Spanish Estramadura. He was present at the siege and reduction of Olivensa and at the first siege of Badajoz, and at the battle of Albuhera on the 16th May. For his services at Albuera Arbuthnot was mentioned in dispatches by Lord Beresford to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and also given the honour of carrying Beresford’s despatches back to England:

“To the services of Lieutenant-Colonel Arbuthnot (Major in His Majesty’s service) I am also much indebted, and he is the bearer of this to your Lordship, and is fully enabled to give you any further information you may desire and is most deserving of any favour Your Lordship may be pleased to recommend him for to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent”.

For his services at Albuera Arbuthnot was subsequently promoted Lieutenant in the British Army, 22/5/1816, Arbuthnot having distinguished himself at Albueira by galloping between two regiments, the British 57th and a Spanish regiment, and halting the firing between the regiments, which by mistake they were then engaged in, a feat which he performed without receiving a single wound. In the same battle, at a critical moment, he was enabled by his quickness of sight to discern a retrograde movement on the part of the French, which Marshal Beresford had not perceived, and induced the latter to recall an order which he had just given for the retirement of two batteries of artillery. At an earlier period, in South America, when he and General Beresford were prisoners in the hands of the Spanish, and when all the officers were about to be searched for papers, he contrived a clever stratagem to secrete in an orchard an important document, the Convention which had been executed between General Beresford and the Spanish General Linieres, of which the Spanish were anxious to regain possession.

In the campaign of 1812 he was present at the sieges, storming, and capture of both Ciudad Rodrigo on the 19th January and of Badajoz on the 6th April. He afterwards accompanied the army as it advanced to the north, and was present at the capture of the town and fortress of Salamanca and the subsequent operations against Marshal Marmont, when the enemy was forced to retire across the Douro at Tordessillas. At this this point ill health, brought on by fatigue, compelled him to return to England and it was not until the latter end of 1813 that he was sufficiently recovered to rejoin the army, which was then in the Pyrenees, on the point of entering France.

In the campaign of 1813 he was present at the battle of the Nivelle, 10th November, at the crossing and battles of the Nive from the 9th to 13th December, and the subsequent operations on that river and the Adour. In the campaign of 1814, he was at the operations of crossing the Gava d’Oleron and Pau, prior to the battle of Orthes on the 27th February at which he was present, and after crossing the Adour at St Sever he accompanied Lord Beresford from Mont de Marsan to Bordeaux, which latter city surrendered on the 12th March to the allied British and Portuguese troops under Beresford’s command. Lord Beresford afterward rejoined the Duke of Wellington with a division (the 4th) at Tarbes, and continued with Wellington during his subsequent operations on the Garonne. Arbuthnot was present at the crossing of the Garonne, and at the battle of Toulouse on the 10th April. He afterwards accompanied Lord Beresford to Paris, where he attended the reviews of the foreign troops in the city, and the public entry of Louis XVIII.

On his return to England the Duke of York recommended Arbuthnot to the Prince Regent for a Company in the Coldstream Guards, to which he was gazetted on 25/7/1814.

Arbuthnot held the rank of Brigadier General in the Portuguese service and the Prince Regent of Portugal conferred on him the honour of Knight Commander of the Tower and Sword. In 1815 he was appointed a K.C.B. He also received the Gold Cross with three clasps for the battles of Busaco and Albuhera, siege of Badajoz, and the battles of Nivelle, Nive, Orthes and Toulouse, and was awarded the Military General Service Medal for Corunna and Ciudad Rodrigo. In 1830 he attained the rank of Major-General, and in 1838 was appointed to the command of the troops in Ceylon, after which he commanded a Division in Bengal until his promotion as Lieutenant-General in 1841. Arbuthnot was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 76th Foot in 1843 and died on 6 May 1853.

The Arbuthnot family estate, Rockfleet, included in its grounds Rockfleet Castle, built circa 1507, that was at one time the home of Grace (Grainne) O’Malley (1530-1603), the celebrated Pirate Queen and Chieftain of the clan O’Malley, which is now open to the public.