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MGS Corunna Grenadier Guards

£1,195.00

Military General Service Medal, bar Corunna, Pte Christopher Theobald, 1st Foot Guards, Grenadier Guards. Fought with brother at Corunna, only Son was an Australian Convict.

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SKU: J9192 Category:
Origin: United Kingdom
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Description

Military General Service Medal, bar Corunna, Private Christopher Theobald, 1st Foot Guards, the Grenadier Guards. 

 

Officially impressed: “C. Theobald, 1st Foot Gds.”

 

Confirmed on the medal roll.

 

Toned, good preserved condition for age, slight edge bruising through wear in later life.

 

With copy extracts from Grenadier Guards Muster Rolls confirming his service details.

 

Provenance, spotted in Glendinings during 1978.

 

Notably at the Battle of Corunna in 1809 the Grenadier Guards played a distinguished part in the battle, and men from the 1st Foot Guards and 42nd Foot would personally carry back the mortally wounded Sir John Moore, aka “Moore of Corunna” when he became a casualty whilst in command of the entire Army at the battle.

 

Christopher Theobald, was born on 14th July 1787 in Leicestershire.

The son of Richard and Anne Theobald.

He was baptised there at St Martins in Leicester on 24th July 1787.

 

His father was a Notts Man, it looks like the family returned there shortly after his birth.

Before his service and after leaving the Army he worked as a Frame Work Knitter.

 

Prior to enlistment he lived in Nottingham, where afterwards he would remain for the rest of his life.

 

ARMY SERVICE

 

Christopher first enlisted into what was known as the time as the “1st Regiment of Foot Guards”, on 15th October 1806 at Nottingham.

 

What is interesting is that about 2 months earlier a John Theobald, also signed on for service at Nottingham on 5th August 1806, who looks to be his brother, (John was born in Nottingham circa 1878 strongly suggesting the family had moved there shortly after the birth of Christopher). Who had similarly worked as a Framesmith.

 

John later rose to Sergeant fighting at Corunna, Nivelle, Nive and Waterloo (Receiving an MGS 3 Bars and Waterloo Medal).

 

The two of them would have received their baptism of fire fighting together with the 1st Foot Guards at the Battle of Corunna in 1809.

 

Christopher was later discharged from service, “Time Expired” on 24th October 1814, at this time he was serving in Captain Stanhope’s Number 3 Company, later known as the Honourable Lieutenant Colonel James H. Stanhope.

At this time, the Napoleonic Wars were technically over, Napoleon being tucked away in exile on Elba.

 

Many years later about 1847, Christopher would finally receive this medal, his long overdue only medal for this Army Service in the Napoleonic Wars.

 

 

RETIREMENT AND FAMILY LIFE IN NOTTINGHAM

 

Leaving the Army behind, he returned back to Nottingham, where he married and raised a family for the remainder of his life.

 

On 25th November 1817 he married Elizabeth Hadfield at St Marys in Nottingham.

 

Taking up residence on Red Lion Street returning to being a Framework Knitter

 

He had a number of Children, Susannah (1818), Lucy (1820), Christopher (1822 died same year), Ann (1825), (Sarah 1828) and finally Christopher (1831).

 

It looks like he tried to pass down his name to a Son, who sadly died young, having 4 daughters before he could finally pass down his name to a son in 1831 (who turned into a convicted criminal and was shipped off to Australia)

 

He would move to the Knotted Alley from 1825-1840s.

 

By the time of the issue of the medal circa 1847 Christopher would have been turning about 60 years old at this time.

 

The 1851 Census later recalls him as a Widower living with his Daughter Ann’s Family at 14 Foundry Yard, in Nottingham.

 

 

HIS ONLY SON, Christopher “Columbus” Theobald, the career convicted criminal shipped off to Australia

 

However his only son and namesake Christopher Theobald (Born 1832) ended up being convicted aged only 17 in Nottingham for “Stealing Lead from a Church” which led to a significant 7 year sentence from 15th October 1849.

He would later find himself on the quite awful “Convict Hulk Warrior” decommissioned Royal Navy ships down in Woolwich used as floating prisons.

https://www.royal-arsenal-history.com/woolwich-arsenal-prison-hulks.html

 

Many of these men ended up shipped off to the Penal Colony in Australia, including a young Christopher, in the early 1850s he was shipped off to the infamous Prison Colony on the Convict Ship “Pestonjee Bomanjee”

 

In Australia he took on the amusing alias “Christopher Columbus” being recorded as “Christopher Columbus Theobald” and looks to have spent his whole life and and out of jail for stealing.

 

He can be found almost too many times to count on the Australian Prison records from the 1850s all the way until the 1890s for various burglaries and schemes.

 

He died in Australia during 1900.

 

The following article was published in the local Nottinghamshire Guardian on 18th October 1849, and must have had quite the effect on his father, his only son “transported” to Australia whilst the others got away with a short prison sentence and whipping.

 

“STEALING LEAD.—Christopher Theobald, aged 17, labourer, Samuel Young, alias Richard Brown, aged 19, framework knitter, and George Thomas, labourer, all of Nottingham, pleaded not guilty to stealing, on the 27th of July, at West Bridgford, six pounds weight of lead, fixed to the parish church.

 

Mr. Denison prosecuted; the prisoners were undefended.

 

George Handley, a young country bumpkin, deposed that at an early hour on the morning in question he was passing the church, when he saw the prisoner jump on the roof of the vestry, with a piece of lead in his hand, which he threw into the yard. He then jumped down, and was joined by Thomas and Theobald. They hid the lead in the hedge bottom, and the witness’s, father coming up, disturbed them, and they ran away. 

 

They afterwards succeeded in apprehending Theobald and Thomas, and Young was apprehended by the constable Poole.Gilbert Handley corroborated his son’s evidence, and identified Young as having on a “jane” meaning a checked coat. Upon hearing this the prisoner Young exclaimed, “Why, you don’t mean to say I’d a young woman on my back!” (Laughter.)—Guilty.

A previous conviction against Theobald was proved. He was sentenced to seven years’ transportation; and the others to three months’ imprisonment, and to be whipped.”