Orders, Decorations and Medals

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, 14 Dec Boat Service 1814, Algiers (W. Creak, Lieut. R.N.) minor edge nicks and surface marks to obverse, otherwise good very fine £6000-7000

William Creak entered the Royal Navy on 20 March 1806, as First Class Volunteer on board the Quebec 32, Captain George M’Kinley; and on accompanying that officer, after a cruise of three months on the coast of Holland, into the Lively 38, took part, as Midshipman, in various operations on the river Tagus. He was present at the landing of Sir Arthur Wellesley at Vimiera, contributed to the reduction of Vigo, off which place he received a pike wound in the right shin while in the act of boarding a vessel, and of Santiago in 1809, and was finally wrecked, off the island of Malta, in August 1810.

From November 1810, until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 3 February 1815, he was employed on the Mediterranean, Home and American stations, in the Victorious 74, Captain John Talbot; Perlen 38, Captain John Allen; Bellona 74, Captain George M’Kinley; Newcastle 58, Captain Lord George Stuart; and Tonnant 80, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Alexander Cochrane. Whilst in command of a yawl, attached to the Tonnant, Midshipman Creak served with the boats of a squadron, 45 in number and containing some 980 persons, under Captain Nichoilas Lockyer, in an attack made on 14 December 1814, after an exhausting row of 36 hours on Lake Borgne, near New Orleans, on a flotilla of 5 gun-vessels, under the command of the American Commodore Jones, all of which were captured.

From 29 September 1815, until paid off on 16 Spetember 1818, Lieutenant Creak served on the Cork and Mediterranean stations in the Mutine 18, Captains James Mould and William Sargent. In that sloop he fought at the battle of Algiers, where he assisted in a gig in blowing up a vessel full of powder under the very walls of the city. His last appointment was to the Ordinary at Portsmouth, in which he was employed with his name on the books of the Victory 101, and Blenheim, from January 1845 until January 1848. He obtained the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital on 17 July 1857, and was advanced to the rank of Commander on 5 February 1858. Commander Creak received a medal with two clasps for the affair on Lake Borgne and the battle of Algiers. He married in March 1825, Jane, daughter of William Havelock (and only survivng sister of Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, K.C.B., of Lucknow). Commander Creak died in 1858 at Plymouth.