Orders, Decorations and Medals

A rare escaper’s N.G.S. awarded to Commander Frank Cutler, Royal Navy, who, after nearly six years in captivity, walked 600 miles to freedom ‘in the guise of a French soldier’

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Gut of Gibraltar 12 July 1801 (Frank Cutter) edge bruise and polished, therefore nearly very fine £2500-3000

Ex Rev. N. Kynaston Gaskell collection, Glendining’s January 1943. Note misspelling of surname on medal but no others of either name on roll.

Frank Cutler entered the Navy in April 1800 as First Class Volunteer on board the Caesar 50, Captain James Saumarez, under whom he was present, on 6 July 1801, in the battle fought off Algeciras, and, six days later, in the victory gained over the Franco-Spanish squadron in the Gut of Gibraltar, near Cadiz. In December 1802 he joined the Minerve 48, Captain Jahleel Brenton, a vessel with a highly distinguished record of service under Captain George Cockburn and Commodore Horatio Nelson, not forgetting a young Lieutenant by the name of Thomas Masterman Hardy. Under Brenton, however, her luck ran out when, she ran aground in a thick fog near Cherbourg on the evening of 2 July 1803, while in charge of the pilot. In spite of a sanguinaryresistance lasting several hours, she was compelled to strike her colours and the surviving officers and crew made prisoner.

Cutler remained a prisoner in France, probably at Verdun along with Captain Brenton and other officers, for nearly six years. He succeeded in escaping, however, in May 1809, ‘on honourable terms, after undergoing the greatest hardship and fatigue, walking 600 miles in the disguise of a French soldier’.

Upon his return to England he was recommended by Captain Sir Thomas Lavie ‘for exemplary conduct during long captivity and honourable means of effecting escape from prison.’ From the time of regaining his liberty until his promotion to Lieutenant, in March 1812, Cutler served as Midshipman and Master’s Mate aboard the Ajax 74, Crocus sloop, Curaçoa 36, and Daphne 20. His next appointment was to the Clio 18, Captain William Ffarington, the boats of which sloop he commanded, in conjunction with those of the Hamadryad 36, under Lieutenant Pesley, at the capture, off Hermeren, of a French privateer, Le Pilotin, carrying four 12-pounder carronades and 31 men. Three Danish cutters came out to support Le Pilotin, but retreated on the advance of the British (Vide London Gazette 1812, p. 2192).

In April 1813 he joined the Medway 74, flag-ship of Sir Charles Taylor at the Cape of Good Hope, and was present when she captured the American sloop of war Syren, near the island of Ascension in 1814. He was placed on half-pay in April 1816, and advanced to the rank of Commander, Retired, in August 1854. Commander Cutler, ‘who wears a medal for the action of 12 July 1801’, was British Vice-Consul at Bordeaux from December 1834 until at least 1860. He married, 27 September 1827, Clara Eliza, youngest daughter of John Lucena, Esq., Consul-General from the court of Portugal.