Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Stately 22 March 1808 (William Willson.) dark toned, very fine £3600-4200

Provenance: Sotheby, October 1983; Spink, July 2000.

William Willson is confirmed on the rolls as a Boy aboard H.M.S. Stately. One other man of this name is shown on the roll for Syria.

Approximately 31 clasps issued for ‘Stately 22 March 1808’.

William Willson (occasionally Wilson) was born in Walstead, West Sussex, around 1794. At the age of 13, on 11 August 1807, he enlisted as a Volunteer in the Royal Navy at Yarmouth. He was entered on the books of H.M.S. Stately 64, as a Boy 3rd Class. He served in Stately for a little over 2 years 6 months and witnessed the destruction by Stately and Nassau, also a 64-gun frigate, of the last surviving Danish man-of-war Prins Christian Frederik 64, off the north coast of Zealand on 22 March 1808.

He was invalided out of Stately on 31 January 1810, probably because of some sickness or wound. He most likely took passage home in a merchant ship, and was entered on the books of the Gladiator 44, with the notation ‘on passage’. Gladiator was a convalescent ship which never went to sea. He was dismissed as ‘unserviceable’ from the books of Gladiator a bit over a week later, on 9 February 1810. At this point we lose track of his whereabouts until December 1818.

However, at the claimed aged of 27, he appears on the books of Icarus 10, on 26 December 1818, where he was rated Able Seaman. It is likely he had had further service in the merchant marine because of this immediate higher ranking. He served in Icarus on the South American Station for 2 years 6 months, until the ship was paid off on 14 June 1821. Icarus was involved in pirate suppression. We again lose track of him until May 1828.

On 30 May 1828 he appears in the Grasshopper 18, where he is again rated Able Seaman. But less than 3 weeks later he is rated ‘Captain of the Forecastle’, a Petty Officer rank indicating he is now a seasoned sailor with ability to supervise and lead others. Based in Jamaica, Grasshopper served on the West Indian Station during the years 1828-30, where she was involved in suppressing the slave trade. For some unknown reason, possibly he was guilty of some minor offence, Willson reverted back to the rating of Able Seaman, on 15 June 1830, and stayed in that rate until 8 November 1830, when he was again rated Captain of the Forecastle, in which rate he served until the ship was paid off on 6 September 1831. At this point we lose track of his naval career. On 5 December 1846 the Admiralty summarised his service in the Royal Navy as 8 years, 3 months, 1 week, and 1 day.

Sold with a USB stick with all research material in digital form including several copied pictures of the action.