Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Pique 26 March 1806 (Christr. Bell, Lieut. R.N.) contact marks and somewhat polished, otherwise nearly very fine and very rare £16000-18000

Provenance: not previously recorded.

8 clasps issued for ‘Pique 26 March 1806’. Christopher Bell is confirmed as a Lieutenant in Pique at the capture of the two French 16-gun corvettes Phaeton and Voltigeur in the Caribbean sea on 26 March 1806.

Christopher Bell entered the Navy in June 1796, as First Class Volunteer on board the Clyde 38, Captain Charles Cunningham. He continued to serve in that frigate, in the Channel, North Sea, and off the Western Islands, for the space of six years, and on 20 August 1799, when off the Cordovan light-house, assisted at the capture, after a gallant engagement of nearly two hours, of the French frigate La Vestale, of 36 guns and 230 men, of whom 10 were killed and 22 wounded, the British losing only 2 killed and 3 wounded. He passed his examination in April 1802; sailed in July following for the Jamaica station in the Chichester store-ship, Captain Stevens; was there promoted, 20 October in the same year, from the Leviathan 74, bearing the flag of Sir John Thomas Duckworth, into the Shark 18, Captain J. B. Herring; and afterwards joined, 5 October 1803, and 16 September 1804, the Magnanime 18, Captain Edward Hawker, and the Pique 36, Captain Charles Bayne Hodgson Ross.

In command of the tender belonging to the Pique, Lieutenant Bell, on 26 March 1806, aided in taking the two French 16-gun brigs Phaeton and Voltigeur; and, on 1 November ensuing, as First of the Pique, with her barge and two other boats under his orders, he succeeded, without the loss of a man, in cutting out from the harbour of Cabaret, Porto Rico, a fine new Spanish brig, pierced for 12 guns, and completely destroying a 3-gun battery at its entrance.

While subsequently employed ashore on the south side of St. Domingo, he received a severe wound in an attack made by the natives on his party, and in consequence was presented with a gratuity from the Patriotic Fund. He was next appointed, 13 March 1807, to the acting-command of the Shark receiving-ship at Port Royal, from which he was confirmed, 1 April 1808, into the 14-gun brig Phipps. On 16 November 1810, Captain Bell, who had previously chased a lugger-privateer close under Calais, fell in with two others, one of which, Le Barbier de Séville of 16 guns and 60 men, on being brought to close action, was gallantly boarded, and in a few minutes carried, by Lieutenant Robert Tryon, at the head of a party of seamen, one of whom was killed, and the Lieutenant himself dangerously wounded. The enemy lost 6 killed and 11 wounded, and the prize, from the well-directed fire she had sustained, sank soon after the engagement. For this achievement Captain Bell, as were his officers and crew, was honoured with the approbation of the Admiralty. He removed, 19 June 1811, to the command of the Mosquito, a first-class sloop, but was superseded on advancement to Post-rank, 7 February 1812, and not afterwards employed. His nomination to the C.B. took place on 4 July 1840, and his elevation to the rank Rear-Admiral on 1 October 1846. Rear-Admiral Christopher Bell, C.B., died at Aigburth Ash, near Liverpool, on 16 October 1853, in his 70th year.