Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Royalist 29 Decr 1812, Syria (Alexr. Brown, Gunner.) original ribbon, extremely fine and extremely rare £18000-22000

Royalist 29 Decr 1812 [3 issued] - Alexander Brown, Coxswain; Henry Hackman, Able Seaman (Known); Lewis Rees, Midshipman. This medal is new to the market and was given to the vendor when a young boy some 50 years ago.

Alexander Brown is confirmed on the roll as Coxswain for the capture of La Ruse by the Royalist on 29 December 1812, and as Gunner aboard the Castor at Syria. His entry on the roll for the Royalist clasp (ADM 171/3/148) carries the marginal note ‘additional claim’, which some compilers of the various published medal rolls have tied up with Alexander Brown, A.B., of the Swiftsure at the Nile, whereas the above medal, shows that he was in fact later the Gunner aboard the Castor at Syria.

At 11 p.m. on the night of 29 December 1812, the eighteen-gun brig Royalist, Commander George Downie, cruising in the Channel off Hythe, fell in with, and after a short action captured, the French privateer lugger La Ruse, sixteen guns, with a crew of sixty-five men. The prize had her main mast shot away, and one of her crew killed, and another wounded, before she struck her colours. She was a new vessel on her first cruise and had made no captures. Downie was killed when in command of a British squadron on Lake Champlain during the battle of Plattsburg in September 1814.

Alexander Brown is first shown aboard H.M.S. Paulina, which he entered on 17 January 1808, a ‘prest’ man although rated as an Able Seaman so probably taken from the merchant service. The muster book records him as having been born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and aged 18 years on first entering the ship. After service aboard Hind and Latona, he joined Royalist as Coxswain on 17 August 1810, and is shown in the muster book as having been born in Scotland and aged 22 at the time of his entry into the ship. He left Royalist on 7 January 1813, and thereafter served continuously in numerous vessels, becoming Gunner in January 1822, in which rate he joined Castor in April 1837, and saw service off the coast of Syria in 1840. He left his last ship, Boscawen on 4 June 1851, and was finally discharged from the service one week later after an incredible 42 years 11 months’ service. Sold with various copied muster rolls and complete record of service.