This sword is said to have been owned by the soldier who carried Sir John Moore off the field at Coruna, Spain in 1809. Moore was the commander of the British army that was committed to aiding the Spanish rebels battling Napoleon's army in Spain. Based in Portugal he advanced into Spain to attack the dispersed French forces. However, he soon found himself cut off from his supply lines and began a retreat to Corunna on the Atlantic coast. There he organised a skilful rearguard battle that kept the French from attacking his embarking army but he was mortally wounded during the engagement.
Moore was buried the next day, an occasion described in Rev. Charles Wolfe's notable poem, The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna (1817), which begins:
His French counterpart, Marshal Soult, was so impressed by Moore that he ordered a monument erected to his fallen foe as a sign of respect. The original owner of the sword is not known but it came to us from the Cluny Castle sale in 1943.