Crimea Medal no clasp contemporary engraved naming CAPT R S WARBURTON 3RD FOOT.
Major Robert Sandford Warburton was born on 6 February 1827 in Kilkenny, County Kildare, Ireland, the son of Reverend John Warburton and Henrietta Ann Sandford Warburton (née Palmer). He received his initial commission as Ensign by purchase with the 30th Foot on 8 October 1847, but transferred to the 3rd Foot just a few months later on 10 December 1847. Rising to Lieutenant on 18 June 1852, and to Captain on 8 December 1854, he saw service in the Crimea at that rank, and was promoted to Major (again by purchase) on 5 September 1862. He later appears to have served with the Kilkenny Militia in Ireland, from 1874, as Captain and Adjutant, but his services were dispensed with on 1 September 1876.
He appears to have been a relation of the Ensign Robert Warburton (1812-1863), 30th Foot, who married an Afghan Princess in the Afghan Campaign of 1839-42, and whose son of the same name wrote ‘Eighteen Years in the Khyber’, but is not the same man
