Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Martinique (Geo. Smith.) edge bruising, very fine £600-800

Provenance: Stansfeld Collection, Spink, June 1984.

George Smith was born in Esher, Surrey, in 1785 and joined the Royal Navy as a Volunteer and Landsman in H.M.S. Stork on 20 November 1807. He was lent to H.M.S. Cleopatra from 9-21 February 1809, before returning to Stork in time for the combined naval and military assault and capture of the French-held island of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, 24 February 1809. He was advanced to Ordinary Seaman on 1 March 1811 and was discharged to H.M.S. Trent for passage home on 6 April 1813. He was admitted to Greenwich Hospital on 6 March 1845, aged 60.

One other man with the name George Smith appears on the Admiralty Claimants’ List for Martinique, an Able Seaman in H.M.S. Captain, although he additionally received the clasp for St. Domingo; 16 other men with the name George Smith appear on the Admiralty Claimants’ List for the Naval General Service Medal as a whole, including 9 for Syria.