Orders, Decorations and Medals

China 1842 (Robert Friend, Corporal, Royal Marines), original straight bar suspension, contact marks and edge nicks, very fine £400-450

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Brian Kieran Collection.

View
Collection

Robert Friend, who was born at Modbury, Devon, enlisted in the Royal Marines in July 1834, aged 20 years. Posted to the Plymouth Division, his subsequent appointments comprised H.M.S. Royal Adelaide (September 1835 to April 1836), Imogen (June 1836 to December 1839), Cornwallis, during the First China War (January 1841 to August 1842), Apollo (August 1842 to November 1843), Heroine (September 1845 to November 1848) and Grecian (August 1851 to April 1856); and his subsequent promotions to the rank of Corporal in November 1840, Sergeant in August 1842, Colour-Sergeant in October 1847 and, after being convicted of being drunk on duty aboard the Grecian in April 1854, back to Sergeant, in which rank he was discharged at the R.M. Barracks Stonehouse in July 1857 (T.N.A. ADM157/154 refers); sold with copied photograph of a picture depicting the signing of the Treaty of Nanking, which took place aboard the Cornwallis during August 1842.