Above: Former rifleman of the 95th Foot and Waterloo veteran Charles Ormond posed straight and unbowed half a century after taking part in the Napoleonic Wars.

Carte de Visite
Unknown Photographer
Alnwick, Northumberland, England
c. 1860

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...with the following inscription on a silver shield: "A very humble token of English gratitude for a soldier's heroic services at Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d-Onora, Cuidad Rodrigo, Badajos, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, St Sebastian, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse, and Waterloo". This brave old veteran prefers two other claims for bars to his Peninsular medal, which we believe are at present under investigation in the proper quarter."

Interestingly, the article mentions Ormond being entitled to 13 clasps to his MGSM and was seeking authorization for two additional clasps for a total of 15. He is seen wearing 11 in the photograph (a number confirmed by the MGSM rolls) so perhaps the two additional clasps were in fact never authorized. Waterloo was not represented by a clasp on the MSGS but by a distinct award of its own, the aptly named Waterloo Medal. This is the second medal Ormond is pictured
wearing.   

Charles Ormond was born to Derwick Ormond and Isabella Walker in Alnwick, Northumberland in 1788. He attested with the 95th sometime in 1806. His occupation was that of a shoemaker. He
would serve with the 95th throughout the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. At the time of Waterloo, Ormond was serving in Captain Leache’s company of the 1/95th. Ormond was discharged at the age of 33 as “old and worn out” in 1820.

Ormond married Ann Gray at Dover on 19 December 1814 with their first child, Elizabeth, being born in 1815. They would also have a son Peter (b. 1825), and a second daughter Dinah (b. 1828).
Ormond took to farming after leaving the colours. He passed away at his home in Alnwick in 1875.