Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Egypt (Francis Cole.) good very fine £1,600-£1,800

Provenance: Glendining, March 1902.

Francis Cole is confirmed as a Boy 3rd Class aboard H.M.S. Experiment in the operations on land and off the coast of Egypt. Only 3 clasps to this ship.

Francis Cole was born in Portsmouth c1785. He began service at the age of 8 as a Boatswain’s servant in H.M.S. Boyne, serving in her from March 1793 until 1 May 1795, when Boyne caught fire and blew up at Spithead while the Royal Marines were practising firing exercises. The death toll of 11 would have been much greater but for the fact that she was surrounded by other vessels who came to her assistance. He entered H.M.S. Experiment on 12 June 1800, rated as a Boy 3rd Class, and served on this ship in activities on land and off the coast of Egypt between 8 March and 2 September 1801. On 1 March 1802, he was appointed Boy 2nd Class, and on 13 November 1804, he was appointed Landsman. Experiment was a 44 gun, 5th rate, two-decker, launched in 1784 and converted to a troop ship in 1793. She was hulked in May 1805, when Cole moved to H.M.S. Triumph. In the spring of 1806 until the end of his service in May 1809, the ship was captained by Thomas Masterman Hardy and served in the North American Station. On 1 September 1806, he was appointed Ordinary Seaman and would have been serving in the area at the time of the well-known incident between the Chesapeake and H.M.S. Leopard off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1807, which has been cited as one of the incidents that served to raise tensions between the U.S. and Britain, which culminated in the war of 1812.

Cole then served in H.M.S. Barfleur from 16 May 1809, and the following day Captain Hardy joined the ship in Lisbon. Hardy left the ship in 1812 but Cole was to remain with Barfleur until he was discharged to H.M.S. Namur on 25 July 1814. Namur was commanded by Captain Charles John Austen, brother of Jane Austen, but Cole was only borne aboard whilst awaiting his final discharge a few days later.

Not only did Cole serve under Hardy for a large portion of his service in the Royal Navy, his service in Triumph also gave him a link to Nelson, who had served on the ship as a 13 year old Captain's servant in 1771.