The Small Army Gold Medal for Orthes 1814 awarded to Major the Hon. Edward Mullens, 28th Foot comes up at Dix Noonan Webb in London on March 5. Mullens was the fifth son of Sir Thomas Mullens, 1st Baron Ventry. Frederick William Mullens (d. 1712), an English Colonel who claimed descent from the Norman de Moleyns, established this branch of the family in Co. Kerry, settling at Burnham House near Dingle around 1666. His great-grandson, Sir Thomas Mullens (1736-1824), one of three major electoral patrons in Kerry, was created Baron Ventry in the Irish peerage on July 31, 1800, as a reward for his family’s support for the Union with Britain and the abolition of the Irish Parliament.
In the Napoleonic Wars Edward Mullens fought in fifteen battles in the Peninsula between 1809 and 1814, commanded a Light Battalion at Orthes, and was one of the heroes of the Battle of Barossa. At the battle of Orthes on February 27, 1814, Mullens commanded a brigaded battalion made up of all the Light Companies of Colonel O’Callaghan’s Brigade, those of the 28th, 34th, and 39th Foot, plus a Company of 5th Battalion 60th Rifles. His mission, successfully accomplished, was to seize and hold the ford over the Gave de Pau river at Souars.
His Field Officer’s Gold Medal is fitted with three-pronged gold ribbon bar together with a fine colour portrait miniature of the recipient on ivory, in a silver-gilt and gilt metal glazed oval frame, the reverse engraved ‘Major The Honble Edward Mullens. 28th Regt.’ It is estimated at £18,000-22,000.
UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £16,0O0
