The Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal awarded to Captain’s Steward Nathaniel Ward, an early ‘man of colour’ in the Royal Navy

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension, impressed naming (N. Ward. Capts. Stewd. H.M.S. Thunderer.) good very fine £100-£140

Nathaniel Ward was born in Barbados on 25 April 1845; his service record describes him as a ‘man of colour’, and a note with the lot suggests he was of ‘free slave parentage’. He served in H.M.S. Thunderer between May 1877 and September 1878 as a Captain’s Steward (rated Domestic First Class), and was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal shortly before his death from Rheumatic Fever at Hobart Town on 29 December 1879.