China 1842 ([R.] M. Whichelo, Purser H.M.S. Blenheim) fitted with replacement silver swivel-ring bar suspension which obscures first initial, edge bruising, otherwise good very fine £600-700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Kuriheka Collection of British Medals.

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Collection

430 medals issued to this ship which also carried 120 R.M. officers and men.

Richard M. Whichelo was born in Sussex in 1783. Whilst serving as Midshipman of Britannia in 1804, he was appointed Clerk and served as such in the same ship at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He was appointed Paymaster and Purser on 23 October 1807. When Purser of Egeria, he served in her boats at the capture of part of a Danish convoy in the Sleeve, in 1809. He was Purser of Blenheim during the whole of her services in China in 1840, ‘41, and ‘42. He had the medal and clasp for Trafalgar, and the medal for the first China War. He died in 1858. He was an ancestor of the author Edward Morgan Forster, amongst whose papers, deposited at King’s College, Cambridge, can be found a photographic print of a portrait miniature of Whichelo in uniform.