Auction Catalogue

18 & 19 September 2014

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 912

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19 September 2014

Hammer Price:
£7,000

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 4 clasps, Copenhagen 1801, Basque Roads 1809, The Potomac 17 Aug 1814, Algiers (John Ward.) together with original and very rare Prize Money share certificate for the Capture of Algiers named to ‘John Ward, Corporal of Rl. M. Artillery on Board of His Majesty’s Bomb Belzebub’, this much folded and one section detached, the medal good very fine £7000-9000

John Ward is confirmed on the rolls as a Private R.M. aboard the Ramillies at Copenhagen; as a Gunner R.M.A. aboard the Caledonia at Basque Roads; as a Corporal R.M.A. aboard the Aetna at the Potomac; and as a Supernumerary Corporal R.M.A. aboard the Beelzebub (sometimes spelled Belzebub) at the capture of Algiers.

The Prize Money certificate states (handwritten entries in italics): ‘No
3. S L for Wages. These are to Certify, That John Ward has served as Corporal of Rl. M. Artillery on Board of His Majesty’s Bomb Belzebub under my Command from the Twenty fourth Day of July One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixteen to the thirteenth Day of September One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixteen. Dated the thirteenth Day of September One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixteen...[description and age left blank] and is Entitled to have Prize Money for the Capture of Algiers. [signed] Mr F. Michell Acting Commr.’

The presence here of his original Prize Money certificate must establish the above catalogued example as the correct 4-clasp medal as issued to Corporal John Ward of the Royal Marine Artillery. Of the four other men of this name entitled to the Naval medal, one is held by the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, as part of the Douglas-Morris Collection, fitted with the same four clasps but without any further evidence of provenance.