Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

China 1842 (James Noice, H.M.S. North Star.) with original straight bar suspension, edge nicks, very fine £500-£700

Provenance: Kuriheka Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, June 2006.

James Noice was born at Newport, Isle of Wight, in c.1823, and joined H.M.S. North Star as a Boy 1st Class on 16 September 1841. He served in her during the First China War, when, on 21 July 1842, the North Star was amongst the 28 ships and large army contingent that attacked a Chinese entrenched camp, and stormed and captured the city of Chin Keang Foo, in what was the last significant action of the War.

Noice remained in the North Star, and subsequently served as part of the Naval Brigade in New Zealand, where he was present at the capture of the ‘Bat’s Nest’ at Ruapekapeka (entitled to New Zealand medal with dates 1845-46), being one of only 41 men from the North Star to have ‘landed and engaged the enemy’ and thus receive the New Zealand Medal. He was discharged at Chatham on 8 September 1846, after 5 years onboard.