The historic group of four awards to Ensign and Lieutenant (later Colonel) Charles Napier Sturt who

The historic group of four awards to Ensign and Lieutenant (later Colonel) Charles Napier Sturt who was severely wounded carrying the Colours of the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards at the Battle of Inkermann: Crimea Medal 1854-56, 4 clasps: Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol (ENSIGN & LIEUT. NAPIER STURT 3D BATN GRENR. GDS.), engraved in serif capitals, contact marks and much edge bruising, otherwise near very fine; Ottoman Empire: The Order of the Medjidieh, fifth class badge, light enamel damage, about very fine; Turkish Crimea Medal, Sardinian obverse, unnamed as issued, suspension hole plugged and swivelling ring fitted, about very fine; Kingdom of Sardinia: Medal of Military Valor (Captain Chas Napier Sturt Gren. Guas.), reverse engraved in cursive script, contact marks, particularly to obverse, otherwise very fine. [4]

By descent.

Charles Napier Sturt was born in London on the 9th of August 1832 and on the 14th of February 1851 he purchased a commission as Ensign and Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards. The Russian and Ottoman Empires went to war in October 1853 and in February of the following year three battalions of Foot Guards - including Sturt in the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards - sailed for Malta to form the nucleus of the British Army of the East. Sturt was present at the Battle of Alma, and was also at Balaklava - presumably as part of the small Guards detachment that occupied a fort in front of Kadikoi in support of the Turks. In the coming days his duties included service in the siege lines before Sebastopol.

At the momentous Battle of Inkermann, on the 5th of November 1854, the 3rd Grenadier Guards are renowned for having been the only battalion that carried its colours into battle, and it was Ensign and Lieutenant Sturt who bore the regimental colour. The battle was famously hard fought, and Sturt stood courageously in the midst of intense close quarters fighting in an advanced position until he was shot through the body by a Russian musket. Although severely wounded he did not drop the colour, handing it to a Guardsman before he fell. After being carried to the rear he spent several weeks in the notoriously insanitary hospital at Scutari. When he was partially recovered, and having been promoted Lieutenant and Captain without purchase, he returned to England for service in a home battalion. The following year he returned to the Crimea as Aide-de Camp to Major General James Craufurd, who had been appointed to command the Brigade of Guards in the Crimea. Sturt remained in this role until the conclusion of the war.

Following the war he was promoted Captain and Lieutenant Colonel 28th December 1860 and Colonel 9th September 1876*. He was to become Colonel Commandant of the Hampshire Regiment and serve as Conservative MP for Dorchester. He was uncle to Humphrey Napier Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington (see lot 42) and great uncle to The Honourable Gerard Philip Montague Napier Sturt of the Coldstream Guards (see lot 81) and The Honourable Napier George Henry Sturt, RAF, 3rd Baron Alington (see lot 80). Charles Napier Sturt died of bronchitis at Winchester on the 13th of March 1886.

* Hart's Army List 1881