Beschreibung:

M.G.S. and N.G.S. Meals to the Royal Engineers and the Royal Sappers & Miners Military General Service 1793-1814, 1 clasp, Corunna (D. Robinson, R.M. Surveyor & Draftsman) edge bruise and polished, otherwise very fine and rare £1800-2000 Footnote Only four medals issued to Royal Military Surveyors and Draftsmen, this clasp being unique to the Corps. David Robinson entered the Ordnance Survey on 7 February 1799, as a Draftsman at the Tower of London, and in 1804 he was commissioned into the newly formed Corps of Royal Military Surveyors and Draftsmen as a 3rd Class Surveyor. From April to August 1804 he was employed on a survey of Devon and Cornwall, with stations at Launceston, Stratton and Teignmouth. In 1806, Robinson was stationed at Dock, in Plymouth, where he was completing a survey of the Ivybridge area of South Dartmoor, ten miles east of Plymouth. In September 1808, Robinson embarked for Spain on the Sisters transport with a detachment of sixteen sappers, under the command of Captain J. Carmichael Smyth RE. In November they joined the Salamanca headquarters of the army under Sir John Moore The army left Salamanca on 12-13 December 1808, and Robinson moved 35 miles north-east to the new headquarters at Alaejos. A week later the headquarters moved 35 miles north to Sahagun, where a French cavalry attack was defeated on 21 December, and a few days later on 25 December, the headquarters moved 40 miles south-west to Benevente. The long retreat to Corunna began on Christmas Eve 1808, and as the rear-guard of the British army was leaving Benevente on the River Esia, on 29 December, they successfully repulsed a French cavalry attack there. To protect the retreating British forces on the long 180-mile road to Corunna, via engagements at Astorga (31 December), Villafranca (1-2 January 1809), Lugo (6-7 January), and Corunna (11 January), bridges were destroyed by sapper detachments, including the one at Cambre, a few miles up the Mero river near Corunna, where Lieutenant Henry Davy RE was killed on 10 January by the force of the explosion. The next day, the British forces reached Corunna where Robinson prepared a survey map (TNA map WO/78/1988) while waiting for the British evacuation fleet of transports, which arrived on the 14th. Embarkation of the troops began on the 16th, when the French launched an attack which was fiercely resisted, Sir John Moore being one of the many who were killed. Embarkation of the troops continued throughout the night, and Captain Carmichael Smyth RE and Surveyor David Robinson sailed with the evacuation fleet from Corunna on January 17th. Robinson was promoted to 2nd Class Surveyor on 25 September 1811. In 1813, he joined the Expedition to the Netherlands to attack the French-occupied fortresses, landing at Williamstadt on 18 December. He was attached to the Headquarter staff with the Commanding Royal Engineer, now Lieutenant-Colonel Carmichael Smyth, under whom he had served at Corunna. Robinson was responsible for preparing plans of the fortifications, including that of Bergen-op-Zoom. After the abdication of Napoleon in early 1814, the French were withdrawn from all the fortifications in the Low Countries, and on 2 May, Robinson accompanied the British forces into Antwerp. On 1 January 1815, Robinson was promoted to 1st Class Surveyor. Prior to the battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, he was responsible, under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel Carmichael Smyth RE, for the preparation of a map of the Waterloo area from the sketches prepared by the reconnaissance engineer officers. The following is an extract from the diary of Brigade-Major J. Oldfield RE for 17 June 1815: “The retreat of the Prussians upon Wavre rendered it necessary for the Duke to make a corresponding movement, and upon the receipt of a communication from Blucher, he called Col. Smyth and asked him for his plan of the position of Waterloo, which I immediately handed to him. The Duke then gave directions to Sir William de Lance