A medal awarded following the Battle of Waterloo has sold for a four-figure sum at auction.

James and Sons of Fakenham held its final auction of 2022, during which a Waterloo Medal dating back more than two centuries was sold for more than £1,000. 

It was awarded to Thomas Wilson of the 1st Battalion, 71st Regiment of Foot Highlanders.

Fakenham & Wells Times: James and Sons, in Fakenham, sold a Waterloo Medal at its final auction of the yearJames and Sons, in Fakenham, sold a Waterloo Medal at its final auction of the year (Image: James and Sons of Fakenham)

The Fakenham auctioneer said the regiment saw action as part of the 3rd Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The 1st Battalion served in Captain Archibald Armstrong's company.

One officer was killed alongside another 24 servicemen. Fourteen officers and 160 others were wounded. 

Commenting on the sale, David James, auctioneer, said: “This is the eighth Waterloo Medal we have sold in recent times and they always attract a lot of attention.”

Items of militaria are a regular feature of James and Sons’ auctions, such as the steering wheel from a crashed Cold War plane, and medals awarded to a decorated ‘Desert Rat’.