Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Private John Willis, Royal Marines

South Africa 1834-53 (Private, R.M.); China 1857-60, 1 clasp, Taku Forts 1860, unnamed as issued; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., wide suspension (Pte., 93rd Coy. R.M., 21 Yrs.), all fitted with contemporary riband buckles for wearing, contact marks, edge bruising and a little polished, nearly very fine or better and rare (3) £800-1000

John Willis was born near Haverhill, Essex and enlisted in the Royal Marines at Newmarket in November 1847, aged 22 years. Assigned to the Chatham Division, his subsequent seagoing appointments included H.M.S. Castor, May 1849 to February 1853, in which period he was one of around 140 seamen and marines landed in South Africa in 1851, the majority to man the garrison constructed at the mouth of the River Buffalo (see roll in Naval Medals 1793-1856, by Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris, R.N.). So, too, the Comus, May 1853 to June 1858, and the gunboat Havock, from July 1859, in which former ship he qualified for his Second China War Medal and later the clasp “Taku Forts 1860”. Having then removed to the Sanspareil, he was awarded his fifth Good Conduct Badge in November 1868 and his L.S. & G.C. Medal in January 1869, shortly before he was pensioned ashore in July of that year.