Waterloo general’s ‘astonishing’ medals smash auction estimate

A set of medals belonging to a heroic general who fought Napoleon at Waterloo have smashed their estimate after selling at auction for £7,800.

The four individual honours, set in a single “unique” bar brooch, belonged to former British Army commander Lieutenant-General Rowland Hill, who was nicknamed “Daddy Hill” for the care he took over his men.

The “astonishing find” had been estimated to fetch between £1,000-£2,000, but almost quadrupled that forecast when they went under the hammer at Derbyshire auctioneer Hansons yesterday.

A veteran of the Peninsula War against the French, the general later fought at Waterloo in 1815 as the Allied powers under the command of the Duke of Wellington stopped a resurgent Napoleon’s march across the Low Countries.

Hill, born at Hawkstone Hall in Shropshire and educated at The King’s School, Chester, nearly had his military career cut short when he was struck on the head by a musket ball on campaign in Egypt in 1801.

At Waterloo he led a charge at the end of the battle against Napoleon’s feared Imperial Guard, and had been thought killed. But he survived to rise to the highest ranks and, in 1828, succeeded Wellington as commander-in-chief of the British Army.

The general and former MP for Shrewsbury died at Hardwicke Grange, Shropshire, in 1842, aged 70.

During his career, Hill was awarded a clutch of medals; the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath; the Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order (Hanoverian); the Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and the Sword and the Peninsular Cross.

Picture: PA. The general’s custom-made bar brooch.

Picture: PA. Lieutenant-General Rowland Hill.