Lot 13
A Died of Wounds Officers Sutlej Medal 1845-46
At Sea, On Land & In The Air | M24003
Auction: 24 September 2024 at 18:30 BST
Description
Sutlej Medal 1845-46, Aliwal and Sobraon awarded to Captain Thomas Smart 53rd Regiment who Died of Wounds at Sobraon, (Capt Thos Smart 53rd Regt), British Army Impressed naming. very fine. (1)
53rd Foot in the Sikh Wars
The 53rd had, in addition to Captain Warren, six men killed and eight officers and 112 men wounded. Of the latter, Captain Smart, Lieutenant Clarke, Adjutant Dunning and 12 men later died of their wounds.
Captain Smart (Light Company) had been wounded in the leg at the time that the 53rd had been threatened by Sikh cavalry. The left wing of the 53rd Foot, falling back to form square, left him out in the open, but seeing this, Privates George Marshal, Richard Ware and Thomas Jones left the ranks and rushed forward under a heavy and close fire and carried him to the rear. In recognition of their gallantry, these men were given watches by the relatives of Captain Smart.
"Historical Record of the Fifty-Third or the Shropshire Regiment of Foot" compiled by Richard Cannon (Parker, Furnival & Parker, London, 1849)
Captain Charles Edward Dawson Warren, and eight rank and file of the FIFTY-THIRD regiment, were killed. Lieutenant-Colonel William George Gold, Captain Thomas Smart, Lieutenants John Chester, Anthony B. O. Stokes, Robert Nathaniel Clarke, and John Breton, Ensigns Henry Lucas and William Dunning (Adjutant) were wounded.
Captain Smart and Lieutenant Clarke died in a few days of their wounds. Lieutenant Dunning, who was promoted after the battle, also died of his wound on the 6th of April following. One serjeant and one hundred and four rank and file were wounded.
Captain Smart’s name appears on the memorial plaque in St Chad's Shrewsbury.
Footnote
