Orders, Decorations and Medals

Five: Able Seaman Samuel Hyden, Royal Navy

China 1842 (Samuel Hyden, H.M.S. Hazard.); New Zealand 1845-66, reverse dated 1845 to 1846 (S. Hyden, A.B., H.M.S. Hazard) officially impressed naming; Baltic 1854-55 (S. Hyden, A.B. R.N.) impressed naming, possibly an official late issue; Crimea 1854-56, no clasp (S. Hyden, A.B. R.N.) impressed naming, possibly an official late issue; Turkish Crimea, British issue (S. Hyden A.B. R.N.) naming impressed in small capitals, edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine (5) £2000-2600

112 China medals issued to this ship which also carried 20 R.M. officers and men. 23 of these men also served in Hazard during the operations in New Zealand in 1845-46, for which the ship received a total of 35 medals. This is one of four recorded pairs known to have survived to this ship.

Samuel Hyden was born at Chard, Somerset, on 4 November 1823. He joined the navy as a Boy 1st Class aboard Victory on 14 September 1841, and transferred to Hazard on 28 October of the same year. He served in Hazard until May 1847, being promoted to Ordinary Seaman in January 1844 and to Able Seaman in March 1845, and saw much action both in China and New Zealand, besides actions against the pirates of Borneo. He afterwards served in the Baltic as Coxswain of the Launch in the steam corvette Archer, February to June 1854, and was actively engaged in the capture of a number of enemy vessels during that campaign. He was discharged from Archer on 12 June 1854, to await passage to England having been invalided. His Crimean awards have not been verified but it is possible that he found passage in a ship that did qualify on the way home. Sold with research.