Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Basque Roads 1809 (Richd. Copeland, Midshipman.) fitted with contemporary silver ribbon brooch buckle, brilliant extremely fine £2,600-£3,200

Richard Copeland is confirmed as having served as Midshipman in H.M.S. Revenge during Lord Cochrane's successful destruction of a number of French ships, including four ships of the line, in the Basque Roads, off St. Nazaire, 11-12 April 1809.

Richard Copeland was born on 5 March 1792, the son of John Copeland, Surgeon of the 7th Fusiliers and Staff Surgeon to H.R.H. the Duke of Kent when Governor of Nova Scotia (who, together with his wife and youngest son, was lost in the Frances transport, off Sable Island, in December 1799). Richard Copeland entered the Royal Navy on 1 January 1805 (under the auspices of Queen Charlotte and the Princess Augusta) as a First Class Volunteer on board the Medusa, 36 guns, under Captain Sir John Gore, and was removed with the same captain to H.M.S. Revenge, and was serving in her (under the command of Captain the Hon. Charles Paget) when Sir Samuel Hood's squadron captured four French frigates off Rochefort, 25 September 1806, and as a Midshipman during Lord Cochrane’s successful destruction of a number of French ships, including four ships of the line, in the Basque Roads, off St. Nazaire, 11-12 April 1809.

Copeland rejoined Sir John Gore, as Midshipman, in H.M.S. Tonnant, and was advanced Lieutenant in December 1811. He was serving in H.M.S. Cygnet when she was wrecked off the mouth of the Courantine River, before being appointed to the command of the surveying vessels H.M.S. Mastiff, from September 1825, and H.M.S. Meteor, from February 1830, both on the Mediterranean station. ‘While at Gibraltar on one occasion he seized a notorious pirate; and, in 1834, he took captive, near Thasos, another famous marauder, Kara Mitzos, with 160 of his men, all of whom were delivered over to the Greek government. Being, however, liberated without trial, these plunderers resumed their former atrocities with redoubled zest, and falling again into the hands of Capt. Copleand, were sent to the Pacha of Thessalonica, by whom they were executed’ (O’Byrne refers).

Copeland was placed on half-pay in February 1836, and was promoted to Post-rank in June 1838. He subsequently published ‘An Introduction to the Practice of Nautical Surveying, and the Construction of Sea Charts, &c.’, translated from the French of C. F. Beautems Beaupre, Hydrographer of the French Marine.