THE EXTREMELY FINE AND RARE CRIMEAN AND ABYSSINIAN CAMPAIGNS GROUP TO A LIEUTENANT COLONEL 33RD (THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON’S) REGIMENT OF FOOT, WHO’S REMARKABLE ACCOUNTS OF BOTH CAMPAIGNS HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED. AS A CAPTAIN HE TOOK PART IN AND WAS SLIGHTLY WOUNDED DURING THE ‘FRIGHTFUL’ ANNIHILATION OF BRITISH FORCES AT THE STORMING OF THE GRAND REDAN AND DURING THE REMARKABLE ABYSSINIAN CAMPAIGN, COMMANDED THE 33RD A DIVISION OF THE REGIMENT, TAKING PART IN THE STORMING AND CAPTURE OF MAGDALA WHERE THE 33RD LED THE STORMING OF THE MOUNTAIN FORTRESS

CRIMEA 1854-56, CLASP, SEBASTOPOL ‘I B. FANSHAWE. CAPTN. 33RD. REGT. 1855’, ABYSSINIA 1867 ‘MAJOR T. B. FANSHAWE 3RD. D.W. REGT.’. TURKISH CRIMEA 1855, BRITISH ISSUE ‘J. B. FANSHAWE. CAPTN. 33RD. REGT. 1855.’

Thomas Basil Fanshawe was born in Dagenham, Essex, on 3 December 1829. Appointed to a commission in the 33rd (Duke of Wellington’s) Regiment of Foot on 14 April 1846. Advanced to Lieutenant on 3 October 1848 and Captain on 29 December 1854, he served in Halifax, Nova Scotia between August 1852 and April 1854, Malta February 1855 until June 1855 and the Crimea from 7 June that year.

A prolific writer of letters to his mother and family, Fanshawe wrote many campaign letters, most of which survive in the valance House Collections (also including a portrait) see:
https://valencehousecollections.co.uk/?s=Thomas+Basil+Fanshawe+

These letters were subsequently published in 3 books:

Sebastopol to Dagenham: Crimean War letters of Captain Thomas Basil Fanshawe, 33rd (Duke of Wellington's) Regiment

Sebastopol to Dagenham: The Letters of Major Thomas Basil Fanshawe, 33rd (Duke of Wellington's) Regiment

And

Fanshawe's Indian Summer: The private letters of Lt. Col. Thomas Basil Fanshawe from Kamptee 1875

Copies of the first two of which are sold with the medals.

These books give a fascinating insight into the campaigns Fanshawe served in as a Company commander and senior Regimental officer; the dangers and duties in and out of the trenches at Sebastopol, his views on the conduct of the war and insights into the conditions Officers served. Of the Abyssinian campaign, his letters are similarly insightful, especially given the nature of the campaign and the few accounts of it that exist…………….

SEE PDF FOR FULL WRITE UP

Condition generally VF, contact marks and wear to naming of first, Both Crimea’s with engraved and undoubtably contemporarily naming, both appear to be in a slightly different hand. Sold with copied Army Service Record and extracts from The History of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment where Fanshawe receives a number of mentions and the two books of letters mentioned in the text.

A really quite superb group of medals, the personal accounts of the oft forgotten Abyssinian War, being particularly rare.