Distinguished Irish soldier’s medals head home after Shrewsbury auction
A pair of renamed medals awarded to an Irish soldier, whose distinguished army career included serving under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, is heading home to Ireland.
Waterloo Medal and Military General Service (1793-1814) medal with ‘Orthes’ Peninsular War clasp, were presented to Lieutenant Robert John Uniacke (1795–1851) of the 7th Hussars.
The renamed medals were consigned by a collector to a militaria auction at Halls Fine Art in Shrewsbury where they sold for £900 to the Woodhouse Museum, Woodhouse, Stradbally, County Waterford, the former Uniacke family home.
“I am delighted that the medals are returning to the former Uniacke family home in Ireland,” said Caroline Dennard, Halls Fine Art’s militaria specialist. “Marianna Lorenc, Woodhouse Museum curator, made contact soon after we began publicising the medals earlier this year. I cannot think of a more fitting place for the medals to reside.”
Marianna added: “The physical presence of Colonel Robert John Uniacke’s Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo medals in Woodhouse – the demesne he was the owner of – allows understanding of the wider, more complex spectrum of the history of the family he came from, and his own character.
“Bringing the medals to Woodhouse means that another part of its fabric is restored to where it came from. Colonel Uniacke’s medals will be displayed in the Woodhouse Museum, created especially to honour and educate the new generations about those who created this estate and lived in it over many centuries.”
