Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, St. Vincent (Thomas Hills, Volr. 1st Class) minor edge bruising, otherwise good very fine £2000-2500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval Medals from the collection formed by Captain W. A. Tinlin, M.C., late 14th London Regiment (1880-1965).

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Collection

Ex Gray Collection 1920.

Thomas Hills was also entitled to a Boat Service clasp for 1 November 1809, and received two single-clasp medals. His medal for Boat Service, as a Lieutenant, was in the Payne Collection 1911.

Thomas Hills entered the Navy in December 1794, as First Class Volunteer on board the Victory 100, in which ship he was present under the flag of Rear-Admiral Robert Mann in Hotham’s action of 13 July 1795, and under that of Sir John Jervis in the battle fought off Cape St Vincent on 14 February 1797. He continued to serve under Jervis as Midshipman of the Ville de Paris 110, on the Mediterranean and Channel stations, until January 1801, and subsequently on board the Eurydice 24, Seahorse and Amphitrite frigates, the Bellona 74, and Hibernia 110, bearing the flag of Earl St Vincent. He made a voyage in the Eurydice to the East Indies, and on his return to the Mediterranean in the Seahorse, he served in the boats at the destruction of a convoy in Hyères Bay in 1804. From November 1806, when he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, until May 1811, he was employed on board the Philomel sloop, in which he witnessed the surrender in 1809 of the island of Ithaca, and assisted, on 31 October in that year, in covering the boats of a squadron during a desperate and successful attack made by them on a convoy in the Bay of Rosas. In September 1811 he was appointed to the Leyden 64, armée-en-flûte, also in the Mediterranean, where he remained until December 1814. He afterwards assumed command of the Industry revenue cutter in February 1818, and of the Pigmy schooner in June 1820, both on the Home station, and was eventually in charge of the Semaphore Station at Holder Hill, Midhurst. He was promoted to Commander on the Retired List on 18 November 1848.