Beschreibung:

The important Peninsula War medal awarded to General Sir Howard Douglas, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Colonel of the 15th (East Yorkshire) Regiment of Foot, later Governor of New Brunswick and Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Corunna (Sir H. Douglas Bart. G.C.B. Asst. Qr. Mr. Genl.) contained in an old fitted case, nearly extremely fine £4000-5000 Footnote General Sir Howard Douglas was born at Gosport in 1776, son of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Douglas, first Baronet. He was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and entered the Royal Artillery as Second Lieutenant in January 1794. As a subaltern of nineteen years of age he commanded the artillery of the northern district during the invasion alarms rife there after the return of the troops from Bremen in the spring of 1795. In August the same year he embarked for Quebec as senior officer of a detachment of troops on board the Phillis transport, which was cast away at the entrance of the St. Lawrence. The sufferings of the survivors were intensified by their failure to reach a settlement, and an attempted mutiny of the soldiers, which was stopped by the resolute conduct of Douglas. The castaways were rescued by a trader and carried to Great Jervis, a remote unvisited fishing station of Labrador, where they passed the winter. Subsequently they were rescued and carried to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Douglas served three months, thence proceeding to Quebec, where he remained a year, during which time he was employed in command of a small cruiser, scouring for the French fleet said to be making for Quebec. In 1797 he was detached to Kingston, Upper Canada, where he passed two years chiefly hunting and fishing among the Indians, and was employed by the Canadian government on a mission to the Cherokees. On one occasion he skated all the way from Montreal to Quebec to attend a ball, a feat which cost the life of a brother-officer who accompanied him. Douglas returned home in 1799, and his ready seamanship saved the timber-laden vessel in which he made the voyage. Douglas became a Captain-Lieutenant in the artillery in October, 1799, and served variously in the 5th battalion of Artillery, with one of the newly formed troops of Horse Artillery, and with Congreve's Mortar brigade. He became a Captain in 1804 but retired from the Artillery in October of that year, being placed on half pay of the York Rangers, where he remained until promoted to the rank of Major General. In 1808 Douglas was appointed Assistant Quarter Master General in Spain, and was sent out with despatches to Sir John Moore He joined the retreating army in December at Benevente, and was present at the battle of Corunna, 18th January, 1809. In the following July he accompanied the Walcheren expedition in the same capacity and took an active part in the artillery attack on Flushing. The same year he succeeded to the Baronetcy on the death of his elder half brother, Vice Admiral Sir William Henry Douglas. In 1811 Douglas was selected by Lord Liverpool to proceed to the north of Spain to inspect and report on the state of the Spanish armies in Galicia and Asturias, and on the military resources of that part of the country then not wholly occupied by the French, and to report in what way these resources, regular and irregular, including the guerilla system, which had become very formidable, should be encouraged and extended. After conferring with Lord Wellington he proceeded on his mission, and was present at the operations on the Orbigo and Esta, in the combined naval and military operations of the Spaniards and a British naval squadron under Sir Home Popham the younger, on the north coast of Spain in the early part of 1812, in the attack on and reduction of Lequertio, siege of Astorga, operations on the Douro, siege of Zamorra and attack on the ports of the Douro. He joined the army on the advance to Burgos at the end of August, 1812, and appears to have predicted th