Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, G.IV.R., silver (Lieut. John Cornish, R.N., Voted Novr. 16 1843), edge bruising and onetime brooch-mounted, thus fine or better £200-250

John Cornish entered the Royal Navy as a First Class Volunteer aboard the Salvador del Mundo in December 1807, from which vessel he was lent to the Jalouse in 1809-11, in which period he was present at the capture of the 14-gun French privateer Charles.

Appointed to the Pelorus in 1811, he served as a Midshipman in the Bay of Biscay, off the Irish Coast, and in the Mediterranean, and was present at the surrender of Genoa. He also served in the brig sloop Leveret during operations off the Cape of Good Hope and survived the foundering of the brig sloop Partridge off the Dutch coast in November 1824.

Advanced to Lieutenant in April 1827, Cornish’s last appointment was in the Malabar, following which, in October 1834, he was appointed Chief Officer of the Coast Guard at Polruan, Fowey, Cornwall. And it was while employed on similar duties that he won his R.N.L.I. Medal, relevant records stating of events on the 22 October 1843:

‘When the schooner Norman was on passage from Alicante, Spain, to London, she was wrecked near Bovisand, Plymouth, Devon. The Master, three of his crew, and eight passengers abandoned her as soon as she struck the rocks; two men were left behind. Lieutenant Cornish and four of his men launched the Coast Guard boat at the height of the gale and took them off with the seas breaking over her.’

Cornish, who was advanced to Commander in October 1860, retired from the Coast Guard in December 1862; sold with a file of research.