THE MILITARY GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1793-1814 TO PRIVATE J. METCALF, 42ND FOOT (THE POST 1880 1ST BATTALION THE BLACK WATCH, ROYAL HIGHLANDERS), WHO ALSO SAW SERVICE AT WATERLOO AND WAS AFTERWARDS DISCHARGED IN JULY 1816, HAVING SUFFERED THE LOSS OF ONE EYE AND HAVING THE SIGHT IN THE OTHER EYE DAMAGED. Military General Service Medal, 4 clasps, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, Toulouse (officially named, impressed in serifed block capitals: JOHN METCALF, 42nd. FOOT.). Letter "H" in JOHN slightly double struck, otherwise with an attractive light tone and Good Very Fine to Almost Extremely Fine.
Medal accompanied by 2 pages copied service papers, copied extract Military General Service Medal roll (2, original and published), both rolls confirming medal and the original roll confirming clasps, copied extract Waterloo Medal roll (2, original and published), confirming Metcalf also entitled Waterloo Medal, and some copied research re. the services of the 42nd Foot in the Peninsula and at Waterloo.
There is an error on the published Military General Service Medal roll regarding this medal, which records Metcalf as having been awarded the Salamance, Pyrenees, Orthes and Toulouse clasps. This is incorrect. The original medal roll confirms that the 4 clasps on this medal, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes and Toulouse are Metcalf's correct and complete entitlement. This is also confirmed in the published "Royal Highland Regiment, Medal Roll 1801-1811" (Constable, Edinburgh, 1813), a copy of which also accompanies this medal.
John Metcalf was born in the parish of St John, Newcastle, Northumberland. He enlisted into the 42nd Foot on 4/5/1812 and at the time of enlistment was 21 years of age. Metcalf never rose above the rank of Private, and saw service with the 42nd Foot for 4 years and 61 days, with 2 years added to his pension entitlement for having seen service at Waterloo. He was eventually discharged on 3/7/1816, "in consequence of loss of one eye and the other bad, unfit for further service". At the time of discharge Metcalf was 25 years old and gave his trade as labourer.
Military General Service Medal roll records Metcalf as having served with the 7th Company 42nd Foot in the Peninsula and with Captain and Brevet-Major Murdoch McLaine's (Major, 4th June 1814) Company at Waterloo.
The following details regarding the services of the 42nd Foot in the Peninsula and at Waterloo have been extracted from Archibald Forbes's "The Black Watch" and Ian Fletcher's "Wellington's Regiments".
During Metcalfe's period of service with the 42nd Foot during the campaign in the Peninsula and southern France, the regiment saw service with Brigadier-General Pack's brigade of the 6th Division. The 42nd lost 30 men during the Pyrenees campaign. At Nivelle the 42nd drove the French from their positions around Ainhoe, losing 2 officers and 10 men killed and 16 men wounded. Afterwards, at Orthes the regiment again saw heavy fighting and lost a further 158 men, but this was nothing compared to the carnage at Toulouse on 10/4/1814, when the 42nd swept the enemy from their positions along the Calvinet Ridge, but at tremendous cost, losing 27 officers and 406 men killed and wounded, the heaviest loss sustained by any of Wellington's regiments on the day.
At the end of the Peninsular war the 42nd sailed for Ireland, but the following year returned to the continent to join Wellington's Anglo-Dutch army at Waterloo. The battalion landed at Ostend in May 1815 and was posted for service with Kemmiss's brigade in General Picton's division. The 42nd was hard pressed at Quatre Bras on 16/6/1815, particularly during one dangerous moment, when, having just begun to form a square, it was caught in line by French cavalry. The 42nd's Peninsula training, however, probably saved the regiment at this decisive moment and the French were seen off, with the regiment subsequently being praised by Wellington for their performance at Quatre Bras in his dispatch.
Forbes records that, at the moment of impact at Quatre Bras "the 42nd was in the act of forming square from line and all but two flank companies had run in to form the rear face, when the leading squadron of lancers drove in the uncompleted square, carrying along with it by the impetus of their charge, several men of those two companies and by spearing several created a momentary confusion. But the other faces stood firm and gradually closing in the Highlanders bayonetted all the Frenchmen who had entered the square along with the flank companies of the regiment." The 42nd's most senior officers all became casualties at Quatre Bras, the commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Robert Macara being killed in action, the officer who then succeeded him, Lieutenant-Colonel Dick being severely wounded and Major Davidson being mortally wounded, the command of the regiment devolving on Brevet-Major Campbell, who commanded the regiment during the remainder of the campaign in France. but at some considerable expense, the 42nd losing 45 killed and 343 wounded at Quatre Bras.
At Waterloo on June 18th, the 42nd Foot were placed on the reverse slope to the centre-left of Wellington's line, behind the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. During the battle they were subject to continual bombardment from French 12-pounder artillery. The 42nd took part in the repulse of D'Erlon's corps at 1.30pm and helped stiffen the Allied centre following the fall of La Haye Sainte at 6pm and at the conclusion of the battle took part in the general advance following the retreat of the French Imperial Guard. It was perhaps during this final advance that Metcalf received the wounds to his eyes that resulted in his being discharged July 1816.
Of the 329 men from the regiment who saw action at Waterloo, some 50 became casualties. After Waterloo, the 42nd marched for Paris, before returning to England in December 1915.
