Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Midshipman Martin Tracey, Royal Navy

Crimea 1854-56, 2 clasps, Sebastopol, Azoff (Midsn. M. Tracey, R.N., H.M.S. Vesuvius.) officially impressed Royal Mint naming in the style of Naval Long Service medals circa 1910; Turkey, Order of the Medjidie, breast badge in silver, gold and enamels, extremely fine (2) £1,200-£1,500

Provenance: Sotheby, December 1990; John Goddard Collection of Naval Medals, Dix Noonan Webb, November 2015.

Midshipman Martin Tracey took part in the commando-style raids against the Russian supply routes bordering the Sea of Azoff in the Summer of 1855. When commanding a paddle-box boat on detached service from H.M.S. Beagle, he and his small crew gave covering fire whilst Seaman John Trewavas swam inshore to cut the hawsers on the pontoon bridge at Genitchi. For this act of gallantry, Trewavas was awarded the Victoria Cross, and for his own services on this and other occasions, in the Sea of Azoff, Tracey was awarded the Order of the Medjidie.

Subsequently transferring to the Orion, Tracey deserted his ship while she was lying at Spithead on 24 March 1856, and was seen no more. He thus never received his Crimea medal, nor was he recommended for the Turkish Crimea medal. Fifty-four years later, his younger brother, the Reverend H. F. Tracey, Vicar of Dartmouth, laid a claim for the issue of a medal in Martin Tracey’s name, and this was authorised in 1910 (despatched on the authority of the Admiralty to the Reverend Tracey, 6 May 1910). There are very few surviving examples of this medal which can be attributed to an individual, of any rank, who served in the Royal Navy in the Sea of Azoff operations (vide pages 340-344, Naval Medals 1793-1856, by Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris, R.N., where Martin Tracey’s medal is discussed).