A SCOTTISH soldier who witnessed the death of Napoleon and took the news back to England steps back into the limelight at a London auction house today.
A three-quarter length portrait of Lieutenant William Crokat of Edinburgh, who later rose to the rank of general, is to be offered for sale together with his Military General Service medal with four clasps.
They are expected to fetch between #2500 and #3000 at the Dix Noonan Webb sale of part of the collection assembled over many years by collector Dr Alan Stott.
Born just outside Edinburgh in 1788 and commissioned into the 20th Foot in April 1807, Crokat served in Sicily and Portugal, taking part in the advance into Spain and the retreat from Corunna.
In 1809 he took part in the Walcheren Expedition, where he was disabled by fever, and subsequently returned to the peninsula.
Crokat was wounded at the Battle of Vittoria on June 21, 1813, and again severely wounded in the Pyrenees but recovered sufficiently to become one of two 20th Foot officers sent to St Helena to attend Napoleon in his exile.
He witnessed the former emperor's death on May 5, 1820, and was present at the post-mortem examination conducted the following day by a Dr Shortt.
The following announcement was published in the London Gazette of July 7, 1821: ''Captain Crokat, of the 20th Regiment, arrived this day from St Helena with a despatch, addressed to the Earl of Bathurst by Lieutenant-General Sir Hudson Lowe, KCB, of which the following is a copy.''
The despatch notifies the earl of Napoleon's death following an illness which had ''confined him to his apartments since the 17th of March last''. It lists Captain Crokat - he had by now been promoted - as the orderly officer in attendance.
Crokat next served in India until ill health forced his retirement on half pay in November 1826. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant-colonel, colonel, major-general, lieutenant-general and, finally, general in 1871, receiving a special rate of #400 per year ''unattached pay''.
After several years in Italy, General Crokat returned to Scotland where, despite his ''shattered health'', he lived to a ripe old age.
He spent his last 35 years in ''unobtrusive retirement'', dying in Edinburgh on November 6, 1879, aged 91.
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