PRIVATE J. EDGAR, 39TH (DORSETSHIRE) REGIMENT, WHO WAS TRIED BY THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES IN 1851 FOR THE MURDER OF A POLICEMAN DURING A MASS DRUNKEN BRAWL. THE MURDER AND SUBSEQUENT TRIAL WAS TO HAVE A LONG-TERM EFFECT ON EDGAR'S MENTAL HEALTH AND HE WAS DISCHARGED FROM THE ARMY IN 1858 SUFFERING FROM TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER, THE CAUSE OF WHICH WAS ATTRIBUTED TO HIS INVOLVEMENT IN THE BRAWL AND MURDER OF A POLICEMAN. Crimea Medal 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (regimentally impressed: J. EDGAR. No. 2555. 39TH. REGt.). Obverse brooched at 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock, scattered contact marks and rim bruises, otherwise Very Fine to Good Very Fine and with a length of original ribbon.
Medal accompanied by 4 pages of copied discharge papers, copied medal rolls (confirming medal and clasp) and copied extracts from newspapers of the day regarding the drunken brawl in June 1851 that led to Edgar being charged with murder of Constable Ewan McDonald.
James Edgar was born in the parish of Desertmartin, Co. Londonderry, Ireland. He enlisted into the 39th Foot at Dundee on 28/12/1846. At the time of enlistment Edgar was 21 years old and gave his trade as that of weaver. He deserted on 31/1/1850 and made his way to Dundee, where he obtained employment as a weaver. On the night of Sunday 30th June 1851 Edgar was one of the two leading protagonists in a mass drunken brawl that resulted in one police officer being stabbed to death and another seriously injured. On the night in question, Constable McDonald and another officer were patrolling the streets of Dundee when they encountered a large group of itinerant Irish labourers in the street outside the Athole Rose public house at around midnight. When McDonald and his colleague asked the men to disperse, they instead turned on the two constables and in the ensuing brawl McDonald was stabbed to death and the other constable seriously injured. When the brawl was over, Edgar fled the scene and went to his sister's house, where he changed into a clean set of clothes before returning to his own lodgings. His ruse failed to throw the police off his scent and they arrested him in his lodgings that same night. Edgars's appearance and that of his co-accused, James McCulloch, at the arraignment proceedings, bears testimony to the violence of the brawl, the John O'Groat Journal of 4/7/1851 reporting that "the prisoner Edgar, who appeared in the clean clothes which were lying at his bedside when he was arrested, had his head bound up by a handkerchief, pleaded not guilty. He was, he said, perfectly innocent of having struck or otherwise assaulted the police. McCulloch's face and head exhibited how forcibly the police had resisted the assault, his nose appeared to have been broken, his head dreadfully cut and his eyes black as coal, swollen almost to closing. His wounds, however, had been carefully dressed. His white fustian clothes presented almost the appearance as if they had been subject to a shower of blood, and altogether this prisoner had a most forbidding aspect. He entered a similar plea to Edgar."
James Edgar and James McCulloch were jointly charged with assault and the murder of Constable Ewan McDonald, and tried at Perth on 15/10/1851. At the trial, despite a witness stating he had seen Edgar standing over the stricken Constable McDonald and kicking him in the head and a police officer giving evidence that, during a search of Edgar's sister's house, he found Edgar's bloody clothes and a knife soaking in a jug of water, no witness could be produced who actually saw Edgar (or McCulloch) stab Constable McDonald. As a result, the charge of murder was withdrawn and the jury was instructed to find the defendents not guilty of murder (the jury's petition for a "not proven" verdict was rejected on a technicality by the presiding judge). The two defendents were both found guilty of the lesser charge of assault and sentenced to 18 months with hard labour.
Edgar subsequently rejoined the 39th Foot, on 17/11/1853, at which point he was court-martialed for desertion, sentenced to 84 days with hard labour, to be marked (i.e. branded) with the letter "D" and to receive 50 lashes (25 remitted). Edgar was eventually discharged on 31/5/1858, giving his intended place of residence as Desertmartin, Derry. At the time that he was discharged, Edgar was clearly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, occasioned by the 1851 murder of the police officer, the medical officer recommending discharge noting that "it is probable that this man's mind was affected by his being present and participating in a brawl in which a policeman was stabbed and killed by another person".
Edgar was also entitled to the Turkish Crimea Medal.