Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Rear Admiral J. H. Cockburn, Royal Navy, Commander-in-Chief on the East Indies station

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (Mate); Baltic 1854-55, unnamed; St Jean D’Acre 1840, silver, very fine (3) £600-800

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

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James Horsford Cockburn was born in 1816, and entered the Navy on 1 December 1829. He passed his examination in 1836 and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in recognition of his services on the coast of Syria in 1840. As Senior Mate of the Castor, he distinguished himself by his officer-like, cool, and steady conduct at the destruction, on 20 September 1840, of a castle mounting 5 guns, and in full view of 500 of the Egyptian army near Caiffa, and witnessed the fall of St Jean D’Acre. He subsequently served in Winchester on the Cape of Good Hope station, and, as Commander, was Second Captain of Hastings in the East Indies, and commanded the Rattlesnake on the Australian station. He commanded the Cossack from August 1855 until she was put out of commission in July 1857, during which time he cruised in the Gulf of Finland, went on a particular service to the coast of Spain, and visited Central America on a mission which was successfully accomplished. He became Rear Admiral in April 1866, and was Commandr-in-Chief on the East Indies station from 6 September 1870, until his death at Government House, Calcutta, on 10 February 1872.