Orders, Decorations and Medals

Army of India 1799-1826, 1 clasp, Ava (Lieut. A. Reed, R.N.) short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming, some edge bruising, otherwise good very fine £800-1000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals Formed by The Late John Cooper.

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Archibald Reed entered the Navy on 6 April 1815, and passed his examination in 1821. For his conduct as Admiralty-Midshipman of the Arachne, Captain Henry Chads, during the war in Ava, he was made Lieutenant into the Alligator, again under Captain Chads. He was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 1825, pages 1493, 1497 and 2278) in connection with a large 36-gun stockade at Than-ta-bain, 6 February 1825, and was at all times spoken of in the strongest terms. He was invalided out of Alligator in October 1825, ‘having served for upwards of six months in open boats several hundred miles form the Ship.’

In Andromache, Captain Henry Chads, which ship he joined in September 1833, he was present, in September 1834, at the forcing of the passage of the Boca Tigris in China. He commanded the boats of the same ship in several successful actions with pirates in the Straits of Malacca, in 1836, for which he obtained promotion to Commander and was presented with a sword by the Merchants of Bombay. In April 1843 he took command of the Racer on the South American station and was actively engaged in the River Plate, and in blockading Maldonado and Buenos Ayres, and commanded the expedition which forced the Port of Ensenada, during the blockade of Buenos Ayres. Reed retired with the rank of Captain and died on 1 May 1863. Sold with further research including much additional information on his part in Captain Chad’s actions against the Malay pirates.