British Army, Medical Staff. Crimean War, the uniform of Dav...

Hammer

£2,000

British Army, Medical Staff. Crimean War, the uniform of David Milroy MD, FRCSE, 30th (Cambridgeshire) Regiment of Foot, comprising infantry jacket with plain silver buttons, another with XXX “Cambridge” buttons, embroidered tail rosettes and epaulettes, medical staff officer’s black coat, hat and epaulettes, with ‘Medical Staff’ buttons, both pairs of epaulettes by J & G Linney, 23 Regent St London and a black tricorn hat (see also two following lots)

Provenance: By descent in the Milroy family to the present vendor

The 30th Regiment of Foot landed at Scutari in May 1854, when Milroy, as an assistant surgeon, came into contact with Florence Nightingale at the Scutari Hospital, Selimiye Barracks, before serving at the battles of Alma (September), Inkerman (November), and the Siege of Sevastopol (October-September, 1855). After Crimea, the regiment was sent to Montreal, Canada in 1861, to strengthen the British hand following the Trent Affair, before proceeding to Bermuda in 1864. Given Milroy's academic dissertation, it's a tragic irony that he died on the tropical island from the effects of yellow fever on 3rd September, 1864, having followed his Hippocratic Oath and altruistically treated men already infected with it.