Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Alexander Davison’s Medal for The Nile 1798, silver, engraved in the reverse field ‘William Wilkinson Goliath’, the medal contained in a silver frame with glass lunettes and silver fob suspension, this with Birmingham silver marks and maker’s mark ‘W.W’, probably mounted later as a family memorial, good very fine £2000-2500

William Wilkinson, Lieutenant, R.N., 29 April 1797; Commander, 27 April 1801; Captain, 21 October 1810. He married, in 1803, Elizabeth Cheyne, and died 28 February 1816.

Naval Chronicle for 1801 - Promotions & Appointments, Whitehall, April 21, 1801, ‘Lieutenant W. Wilkinson, first of the Elephant, in the action off Copenhagen, is promoted to the rank of Commander and appointed to the Holstein, of 64 guns, one of the ships captured from the Danes. This Gentleman was a Lieut. in the Battle of the Nile, under Captain Foley, who then commanded the Goliath; he was there wounded in the head. His conduct, on both occasions, has been that of a good, loyal, and worthy officer.’

The following obituary appeared in The Gentleman’s Magazine for 1816: ‘Feb. 28. At Leith, of a complaint in the chest, produced by professional exertions, in the prime of life, Capt. Wm. Wilkinson, R.N., a zealous and active officer. He was seriously wounded at the battle of the Nile, being then lieut. of the Goliath, and was first lieutenant of the Elephant, to which ship Nelson shifted his flag, on the attack and destruction of Copenhagen, for which services he was promoted into the Holstein, one of the captured Danish ships.’

The pocket telescope belonging to Captain Wilkinson, R.N., is held in the collection of the National Maritime Museum.