China 1842 (J. N. Devries, Actg. Purser, H.M.S. Wanderer) fitted with contemporary swivel-ring straight bar suspension, very fine

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals.

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John Nicolay DeVries was born on 23 March 1819 and entered the Navy on 3 August 1837, as Clerk on board the SCOUT stationed on the coast of Africa. He next served on IMPREGNABLE (1839-August 1840) and officiated during the next seventeen months as Secretary’s Clerk on the SOUTHAMPTON on the Brazils and Cape of Good Hope station. As Paymaster on WANDERER (1842-44) he served as part of the force engaged in the first war with China. He next served in the West Indies in the VESUVIUS (1845-48), and subsequently as Paymaster in charge of the Naval Hospital at Halifax until December 1853; and at Portsmouth in the ILLUSTRIOUS training ship from January 1854 until March 1857. In February 1856 he was the Senior Paymaster selected by the Board of Admiralty to sit on a committee for revising and simplifying ships’ books and accounts. On the completion of that service he received the thanks of their Lordships for the care and attention with which it had been performed. He retired as Paymaster-in-Chief in 1876.