*A Rare Officer’s Prisoner of War MGS awarded to Captain George Tito Brice, 3rd Dragoon Guards, who was severely wounded by a cannonball at Talavera and captured by the advancing French forces whilst lying wounded on the field of battle. He was initially held at the infamous prison-fortress & town of Verdun until the end of the Peninsular War, when his passport was reportedly signed by Napoleon himself at the time of his release, comprising: Military General Service, 1793-1814, single clasp, Talavera (G. T. Brice, Capt 3rd Dragn Gds.), offered with complete box of issue and original ribbon, old cabinet tone, just one or two tiny marks, otherwise practically as struck and rare with original box. Ex Spink, December 1986; Ex DNW, 23 September, 2011; Ex Baldwin, 2013, retail purchase. George Tito Brice was born in 1872 in Wimborne, near Poole, Dorset, the first son of Reverend George Tito Brice – Vicar of Great Canford, Dorset. As a young man of some private means, he purchased a Cornetcy in the 3rd Dragoon Guards for £630 on 17 October 1799, being promoted to Lieutenant on 24 April 1801, and then being reduced to half-pay. He was re-appointed Lieutenant on 2 September 1802, and was very soon after promoted to Captain on 17 December 1803. Serving in the Peninsular War, he landed with the 3rd Dragoon Guards at Lisbon on 26-27 April 1809 as part of Fane’s cavalry brigade. Marching on 4 May to join Wellington’s army they took part in the battle of Talavera on 27 and 28 July, where he was wounded by a cannonball during abortive preparations for a cavalry charge against the opposing French infantry. Captain Brice and one other Trooper were wounded and subsequently captured and taken as prisoners of war from the battlefield as the British troops withdrew to Portugal. According to analysis in Michael Lewis’ ‘Napoleon and his British Captives’ the Army accounted for only 25%, or 1,000 officers and other ranks, of a total of 4,000 British sailors and soldiers held as prisoners of war by Napoleon. Lewis indicates that a total of 229 Army officers were held as prisoners during the Napoleonic War, so a medal to one is really quite rare. A particularly high number of officers were taken prisoner – with many wounded – after Talavera; Lewis indicates no less than 52. In addition, analysis suggests that perhaps 16 Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons elected to attend to the needs of the wounded after the battle in full knowledge that they would fall into captivity as Wellington’s forces left the field. After presumably being treated and transported to France, he arrived at the military fortress of Verdun on 13 May 1810 for registration as a P.O.W. High-ranking officers such as Brice were given the opportunity to live on parole and to pay for their own lodgings elsewhere within the town itself, having given their word as gentlemen not to escape, but with strict curfews issued and daily rolls enforced nonetheless. He remained in Verdun until April 1814 (having in the meantime received the brevet of Major in May of the year before), and for his wounds received at Talavera he was issued an annual pension of £100, dated from 25 December 1811. His death was erroneously announced in The Gentleman’s Magazine in January 1814 (Vol. 84, Part I) with other accurate details included beside it, where it stated: ‘At Great Cranford, where he had lately arrived from France, Capt. Brice, 3rd drag. guards, son of the Rev. George Tito B. vicar of that parish. He was severely wounded at the battle of Talavera, and had been a prisoner four years at Verdun. Bounaparte signed his passport, with those of four other wounded officers, at Dresden, the beginning of September.’ Returning to ‘life’ in Britain alive, he was confirmed as Major in January 1818, and in due course settled in Fordingbridge, Hampshire. In later life he became a local magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for his county, and he died at Packham House on 29 March 1862, aged 80. His son Major-General George Tito Brice C.B., of the 17th (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot, served with distinction in the Crimea and in Canada, and his medals are held by the Leicester City Museum.
