Note 38 — BATTLE OF TALAVERA DE LA REYNA. 27th. and 28th. July, 1809.

Some of the general officers applied to Viscount Wellington to ascertain whether, upon ordinary occasions, they might not wear the ribbon of the medal at the button-hole, instead of round the neck;—“This,” his lordship remarked, “would be a more convenient way of wearing it, and they would consequently wear it more frequently, which would be desirable.” In the reply to the general officers, dated Cartaxo, 3rd. February, 1811, his lordship acquainted them that an answer had been received from Lieutenant-Colonel Torrens, Military Secretary, “stating that the General Officers should wear the ribbon of the medal at their button-hole, the same as the Field Officers, in undress; but when the medal is worn itself, it should be round the neck.”

The medal for Maida was worn at the button-hole, and that mode is alluded to in a letter from the Marquis of Wellington to Earl Bathurst, dated Grenada, 20th. April, 1813. “To Earl Bathurst.—We must have the orders of the Secretary of State for any alteration in the mode of wearing the medal by the General Officers. It may do very well for an admiral to wear his medal round his neck on his quarter-deck, but we on horseback ought to wear it always at our button-hole. Indeed this is the common practice in all distributions of this description, and was the rule at first on the grant of the medal for the battle of Maida; and I don’t know why it was altered.”