Family group:

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Java (George Dowell, Act. Purser)

Three: Captain Richard Borough Crawford, Royal Navy

China 1842 (Richard B. Crawford, Commander) replacement ring and straight bar suspension; Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (Captn. Richd. Borough Crawford R.N.) naming engraved in large serifed capitals; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian issue, unnamed, replacement swivel ring suspension, all with individual silver brooch bars

Representative pair: Lieuteant-Colonel George Dare Dowell, V.C., Royal Marine Artillery

Victoria Cross, modern copy, unnamed, on blue ribbon; Baltic 1854-55, unnamed, with ornate silver top bar, some contact marks, generally very fine (6) £2000-2500

George Dowell served as Acting Purser aboard the 18-gun brig Procris in the operations leading to the capture of Java in September 1811. Later served as a Paymaster, R.N. He was the father of Lieutenant-Colonel George Dare Dowell, V.C. and Ann Dowell, who married Captain Richard Borough Crawford, R.N. (see above). He was also the father of Major-General Wallis Dowell (see lot 1241) and Grandfather of Colonel George Cecil Dowell (see lots 436 and 1241).

George Dare Dowell won the Victoria Cross as a Lieutenant in the Royal Marine Artillery, on 13 July 1855 at the Fort of Viborg, in the Gulf of Finland, when he, with others, rescued men from a cutter that was under heavy fire. Lieutenant-Colonel Dowell’s medals were presented to the Royal Marines Museum in 1974. The above are representations of the medals awarded.

Sold with the booklet The Royal Marines & The Victoria Cross, by Matthew Grant Little and some copied research.