14cm (5.5in) x 8.5cm (3.2in)
Bullion and silk embroidered velvet cigar case with watered silk lining. The exterior displaying a viscount’s coronet over the initials RF amidst scrollwork decoration. The reverse similarly decorated with the arms of the House of Montmorency (Argent a cross Gules between four eagles). Contained in original card case.
Read more
Major-General Reymond de Montmorency, 3rd Viscount Frankfort de Montmorency, (1835-1902) was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and was commissioned into the 33rd (Duke of Wellington’s) Regiment of Foot in 1854. He was recommended for Victoria Cross in the Crimea for his gallantry in the costly assault on the Redan on 8 September 1855. He served in the suppression of the Indian Mutiny (1857-8) and exchanged into the 32nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1861. He was an Aide-de-Camp in the Windward and Leeward Islands, and afterwards to Lieutenant-General Michel in North America during the 1866 Fenian Raids (Medal and clasp). He married Michel’s daughter in 1866. De Montmorency was in Abyssinia the following year in a private capacity at the time of Napier's punitive expedition and joined as a volunteer up to the gates of Magdala (Medal). He commanded in the Sudan in 1886–87 at Alexandria and in operations of the Nile. He succeeded his father in the viscountcy in the Irish peerage in 1889. His eldest son, the Honourable Raymond de Montmorency, who won the VC at the Battle of Omdurman in1898, was killed in action at the Battle of Stormberg in 1900. Lord Frankfort de Montmorency died in May 1902, aged 66, and was succeeded in the title by his second son, Willoughby.