Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Second Lieutenant F. J. Long, Royal Marines

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (Fitz James Long.) with contemporary top silver riband bar; St. Jean d’Acre 1840, bronze, unnamed as issued, with replacement ring suspension, minor edge bruising, good very fine (2) £600-£800

Provenance: Sotheby’s, July 1993.

Fitz James Long was born in Coleshill, Birmingham, Warwickshire, in March 1812, and attested as a Private with 49th Company, Royal Marines, Chatham Division, on 16 October 1830. He was promoted Corporal in 77th Company on 27 June 1835, and Sergeant in 17th Company on 14 May 1839, and served in H.M.S. Cambridge (80 guns) from 12 February 1840 during operations on and off the coast of Syria in that year. He was promoted Colour Sergeant on 28 October 1943, and Sergeant Major on 2 July 1846, and was discharged, with the honorary rank of Second Lieutenant, on 7 April 1851, from whence he was placed on half-pay and appointed Adjutant to the Portsmouth Dockyard Battalion. He died in 1862.

Although he served for 21 years and should be entitled to the Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, Long’s name does not appear on the medal roll for the Victorian wide suspension issue.

Sold with copied research.