WATERLOO MEDAL

THE OUTSTANDING WATERLOO MEDAL AWARDED TO LIEUTENANT 52ND LIGHT INFANTRY, WHO WAS DESCRIBED BY SIR HARRY SMITH AS A ‘MANLY, ROUGH YOUNG SUBALTERN’ AND BY ANOTHER FELLOW OFFICER AS ‘A TALL, GOOD LOOKING, RATTLING, HARUM SCARUM, DEVIL-MAY-CARE, SORT OF FELLOW’, WHO’S DEEDS AT THE BATTLE OF VERA IN OCTOBER 1813 WHEN HE CAPTURED 2-300 PRISONERS, PASSED INTO REGIMENTAL FOLKLORE BUT HE ENDED HIS CAREER ‘DRINKING VERY HARD’ AND ‘INTO SEVERAL VERY UGLY SCRAPES’ SOMETHING THAT CONTINUED FOR HIS SHORT LIFE, LATER SPENDING TIME IN JAIL, FAKING HIS OWN DEATH AFTER BEING BANISHED FROM SCOTLAND AND SPENT SEVERAL YEARS IN SOUTH AMERICA, POSSIBLY AS A MERCENARY.

WATERLOO 1815 ‘LT. JA. STEWART CARGIL, 1ST BATT. 52ND REG. FOOT’.

James Stewart Cargil was born at Dunkeld, Perthshire on 19 January 1795 and was appointed Ensign in the 52nd Foot on 23 June 1812, aged 18. Promoted to Lieutenant (without purchase) in April 1813, the same month in which he embarked for the Peninsula to join the 1st Battalion, which formed part of the famed Light Division. He went on to witness extensive action, being present at San Milan, Vittoria, the Bidassoa, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Tarbes and Toulouse. Though not heavily engaged at Vittoria, the 1/52nd played an important role in the last battles in the Peninsular and especially so during the invasion of France. At the battle of heights of Vera, the, the quick thinking of the commander of the 1/52nd resulted in the taking of many French prisoners and at Nivelle, 10 November 1813, the battalion helped to storm the formidable defences high on the Lesser Rhune mountain, loosing 242 killed and wounded, highest of any unit in the Allied army.

https://www.napoleon-series.org/military-info/organization/Britain/Infantry/WellingtonsRegiments/c_52ndFoot.html

Lieutenant Cargil appears to have particularly distinguished himself at the 2nd battle of Vera on 7 October 1813. Ensign William Leeke, who carried the 52nd’s Colours during the battle at Vera in October 1813, recalls Cargil’s gallantry in The History of Lord Seaton’s Regiment:

‘..This was the officer who, when the 52nd were pursuing the French at Vera about two years before [in October, 1813], went over a short mountain path with Sir John Colborne and four soldiers and rushed down on to the road into the middle of the 9th French Light Infantry and summoned them to surrender, which those who were cut off did, to the number of two or three hundred. This officer, Lieutenant Cargil, received on the spot and tucked under his arm the swords of fourteen of the French officers. I have recently heard it mentioned as fact that one of these officers, having hesitated to deliver up his sword, Cargil struck him a blow in his face with his fist which made his mouth bleed and had the effect of making him tractable. In these days such acts of daring would be deservedly rewarded by the grant of the Victoria Cross……

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Condition edge bruising and contact marks, therefore about NVF. Fitted with steel clip and ring suspension. Ex DNW March 2008 and May 2016. Sold with copied research and The Waterloo Journal, Vol. 35, No. 1, Spring 2013 edition.

An extremely fine medal to a ‘fighting’ Officer in a crack Infantry Regiment who’s life had a tragic ending.