*A Fine M.G.S. and Waterloo Medal Pair awarded to Troop Sergeant-Major James Stride, 23rd Light Dragoons, who provided his own horse to Lord Uxbridge ahead of the Allied advance at Waterloo – the horse upon which, reputedly, he was astride when he famously observed to the Duke of Wellington, after his leg was hit by a cannonball: “By God sir, I’ve lost my leg!” to which the Duke replied “‘By God, sir, so you have!”, comprising: Military General Service, 1848, 2 clasps, Egypt, Talavera (James Stride, T.S. Major, 23rd Light Dragoons.); Waterloo, 1815 (Trp. Ser. Major Ja. Stride, 23rd Reg. Light Dragoons), with original steel clip with split ring suspension; Pair loose, very fine (2). TROOP SERGEANT-MAJOR JAMES STRIDE, of Ringwood, Hampshire, enlisted in the 26th Light Dragoons at Maidstone, Kent. In early 1801 he was with the regiment when they sailed without their horses from Lisbon to Egypt, seeing dismounted service in Captain Turner’s Troop at the Battle of Alexandria, 1801. Shortly afterwards the regiment was renumbered, becoming the 23rd Light Dragoons. On 28 July 1809, Stride rode with Captain Loftus’s Troop at the Battle of Talavera, where the 23rd Light Dragoons made their famous charge against three lines of enemy cavalry. In the Waterloo Campaign of 1815, Stride was Troop Sergeant-Major of Captain P.L. Cox’s Troop. On 16 June the 23rd were rushed up from Brussels to Quatre Bras and during the following day they were involved in covering the retreat of Allied troops. At Waterloo itself they were positioned in the rear of Halkett’s 5th Infantry Brigade, making several important charges with a high degree of ‘steadiness and determined bravery’. In the evening, as the Allied advance began, Lord Uxbridge (leader of the Allied Cavalary) rode up to the 23rd’s Commander, Major Latour, requesting a troop horse to replace his own spent mount. Latour complied ‘by dismounting Sergeant-Major Stride, giving his Lordship the Sergeant-Major’s mare.’ Anecdotally, it was Stride’s horse which Henry Paget, Lord Uxbridge, was riding when a cannonball struck his knee and led to his famous observation “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!” to which the Duke of Wellington replied, “By God, sir, so you have!” Following the disbandment of the 23rd in 1818, Stride, whose duration of service covered all but three years of the regiment’s existence, was discharged as being of poor health and asthmatic. Troop Serjeant Major James Stride is confirmed on the Waterloo Medal Roll. Ex J.B. Hayward, 1977; Sotheby’s, 12 September 1989, lot 340; and Dix, Noonan and Webb, 8 December 1994, lot 98. Offered with substantial original and photocopied research. Ex Glendining, December 1909. Ex Bosley’s, March 2010, Lot 511. Ex Stewart Gager Collection

Estimate: GBP 6000 - 8000