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Lot

№ 9

.

1 December 2004

Hammer Price:
£1,700

Three: Captain of the Main Top J. Lambert, Royal Navy

Crimea 1854-56
, 2 clasps, Inkermann, Sebastopol (Captn. Mizen Top), officially impressed naming; Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Capt. Main Top, Pearl); Turkish Crimea 1855, British die, unnamed as issued, edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise generally very fine and rare (3) £1200-1500

James Lambert was born at Sheerness, Kent in November 1831 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 1st Class in July 1849. He subsequently witnessed active service aboard H.M.S. London during the Crimea War, being present at the bombardment of Sebastopol in October 1854 and, as part of the Naval Brigade, at Inkermann in the following month. So, too, in the Indian Mutiny, when he was landed for service in the Naval Brigade from the Pearl, and wounded in the action at Amorha on 5 March 1858 (‘Slight gunshot wound of leg’). His career, however, came to an inglorious end in January 1873, when as a Boatswain serving in the Duke of Wellington, he was dismissed the service for drunkenness and being absent without leave.