Baltic Medal 1854, awarded to Sapper Alexander Wallace, Royal Sappers and Miners

As well as attacking the Crimea, in July 1854 the British sent a fleet to threaten the Russians in the Baltic. French troops provided most of the landing force, the only British Army soldiers present being engineers and members of the Royal Sappers and Miners, of whom Sapper Alexander Wallace, the recipient of this medal, was one.

Wallace was a miner by trade who enlisted as a Sapper in 1845, aged 18. Much of his military career was spent abroad, including nearly six years spent in the West Indies, as well as in the Baltic and the Crimea. His career was unfortunately a chequered one, as the report of the Discharge Board at Chatham, dated 7 January 1863, reveals. 'His conduct has been indifferent', it stated, he having 'been six times tried by Court Martial' and guilty of '39 Regimental Offences'; these were mostly for absence without leave, but also for 'habitual drunkenness' and 'sleeping on his post'. He was discharged at the age of 36 years, four months, because of 'lameness of the left thigh', the result of an injury 'caused by falling down steps in the New Palace Barracks'. Ironically, his mishap was not one 'aggravated by vice or misconduct'.

Wallace was also entitled to the Crimean War Medal 1854-56 and Turkish Crimea Medal.