A FINE AND RARE FRENCH LÉGION D’HONNEUR AWARDED TO CAPTAIN AND SQUADRON COMMANDER OF THE 10E RÉGIMENT DE CHASSEURS À CHEVAL DU GARD WHO HAD SERVED IN WAR IN SPAIN 1810-13, WITH THE 13TH CUIRASSIERS AND WHO QUITTING HIS REGIMENT IN MARCH 1815 TO JOIN DUKE OF ANGOULEME’S ROYALIST ARMY ON NAPOLEON’S ESCAPE FROM ELBA

LÉGION D’HONNEUR, 1814-30, SECOND RESTORATION, KNIGHT’S BREAST BADGE, IN SILVER, GOLD AND ENAMELS, WIDTH 42MM, WITH ORIGINAL VELLUM ORDRE ROYAL DE LA LÉGION D’HONNEUR, BREVET DE CHEVALIER CHEF D’ ESCADRON VICOMTE JEAN MAURICE DE ROCHEMORE, RÉGIMENT DE CHASSEURS À CHEVAL DU GARD, 30 OCTOBER 1816.

Vicomte (Viscount) Jean Maurice de Rochemore, Baron d’Aigremenont was born on 2 September 1788 at Aigremenont and entered service with the 13e Régiment Cuirassiers as a Sous Lieutenant in 1809 and was promoted Lieutenant in 1812. Promoted Adjutant Major in 1813 and joined the 9e Régiment Cuirassiers in August 1814. Promoted Capitaine Adjutant Major in 1815, he was appointed Chef d’ Escadron that year also. In 1816 he transferred to the Regiment;10e Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval du Gard in 1815 and it was as a Chef d’ Escadron (Squadron Commander), that de Rochemore’s was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1816.

During his service, de Rochemore served with the 13e Régiment Cuirassiers in the French army of Spain (Peninsular War) for four years between 1810 and 1813. In 1814 it returned to France and was engaged in the battles for Lyon.

When Napoleon escaped Elba and landed in France in March 1815, unlike many, de Rochemore left his regiment at Colmar to join the Duke of Angouleme (later Louis XIX) when he landed in France with British forces and commanded the Royalist Army in the Southern Rhone River Valley. The Duke of Angouleme was forced to flee to Britain after Napoleon entered Paris and it is not clear when service de Rochemore saw during the rest of the 100 days campaign, However according to his papers, de Rochemore “Was in Beaucaire (Southern France) on June 26 when he displayed the white cockade, and fought on the 27th against the revolt”

Still in service with 10e Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval in 1823, de Rochemore was awarded the Officier Légion d’Honneur on 24 August that year. He died on 2 March 1853 at Nimes.

De Rochemore’s Légion d’Honneur document is dated 30 October 1816, Château des Tuileries, which was a Royal and Imperial palace in Paris.

This Légion d’Honneur and his 1823 award almost certainly de Rochemore’s only awards.

Condition VF, enamel chipped in places. Award document 45 x 37cm. A Fine award group to a French Officer who served both for and again Napoleon 1810-15. Sold with de Rochemore’s Légion d’Honneur dossier and additional copied research.