Naval General Service 1793-1840, 3 clasps, 4 Novr 1805, Basque Roads 1809, Gaieta 24 July 1815 (S. Wriford, Midshipman.) toned, extremely fine £8,000-£10,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Naval General Service Medals 1793-1840.

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Provenance: Bonhams, March 2016. A unique combination of clasps.

Samuel Wriford entered the Navy on 1 March 1797 as a First Class Volunteer on board the Royal Sovereign, where he continued to serve as Midshipman and Master's Mate until April 1802. He was for close to the next six years employed under Sir. R. J. Strachan on the Mediterranean, Home and Halifax stations, in the Donegal, Renown, Caesar, Triumph and Caesar again. In the Donegal he assisted on 25 November 1804, at the capture, near Cadiz of the Spanish frigate Amfitrite; and on removing from the Renown to the Caesar he fought, on 4 November 1805, in the action which rendered prize to the British the four French ships-of-the-line that had escaped from the battle of Trafalgar under the Rear-Admiral Dumanoir Le Pelley.

On 22 November (the date of his first commission) he was appointed Flag-Lieutenant to Sir R. J. Strachan. In that capacity he continued to officiate until October 1808; in the course of which month he became Senior of the Caesar, then bearing the flag of Hon. Robert Stopford, under whom (previously to witnessing the attack made by Lord Cochrane upon the French shipping in Basque Roads) we find him present on 24 February 1809, at the destruction, beneath the powerful batteries of Sable d'Olonne, of the 40 gun frigates Italienne, Calypso and Cybele. He subsequently accompanied the expedition to the Walcheren, and was for some time stationed on the coast of Portugal under the command of Captain W. Granger. From 17 June 1811 until 26 July 1812, and from 23 November 1812 until 22 August 1814, and from 7 February 1815 until a few weeks after his promotion to the rank of Commander, which took place on 10 October following, he was employed in succession, on the Home and Mediterranean stations, as First-Lieutenant, in the Pompée, Pembroke and Malta. He beheld, in the Pembroke, the destruction of a convoy under the guns of Porto Maurizio and the fall of Genoa, on which occasion he was commended by Captain Brisbane in his letter to Sir Edward Pellew for his ‘unremitting exertions’ as First-Lieutenant of the Pembroke; and he co-operated, in the Malta, in the reduction of Gaeta. His last appointments were: 5 September 1843 and 22 May 1845, to the San Josef and Caledonia, both at Devonport, where he remained until December 1846. He was promoted to Captain on the Reserved Half-pay List on 28 July 1851.

Captain Wriford married in June 1822 to Mary, second daughter of the late Mr P. Goodman Glubb, of Liskeard, Cornwall.