Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Lieutenant A. F. Hurt, Royal Navy

Baltic 1854-55 (Mr. A. F. Hurt, Mate H.M.S. Hannibal) contemporary engraved naming; Crimea 1854-56, 2 clasps, Sebastopol, Azoff, contemporary engraved naming as before; Turkish Crimea, Sardinian issue, contemporary engraved naming as before; Order of the Medjidie, 5th class breast badge by E&E. Emanuel, The Hard Portsea, silver, gold and enamels, contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine (4) £500-600

Albert Frederick Hurt passed in seamanship on 5th July 1854 and was appointed as Mate on 5 January 1855. He served as Mate aboard Hannibal in the Baltic, including the capture of Bomarsund (Medal). In the same ship he served in the Crimea, in the operations with the Black Sea Fleet in the Sea of Azoff, and at the siege and bombardment of Sebastopol (Medal with 2 clasps, Turkish medal and Medjidie 5th class). He was mentioned by Rear-Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons, in his letter dated 6 June 1855, as having taken part in the attack on Taganrog on 3 June 1855, when he was Acting Mate of the 1st Launch from Hannibal, and again brought to notice in Lyons’ despatch of 9 June 1855 for good services in the Sea of Azoff. On 28 June 1855, he was gazetted for operations against Mariaupol and Ghiesk, and on 22 September 1855 he was gazetted with ‘praise for services in mortar-vessel at the bombardment of Sebastopol.’ He also took part in the attack on Kinburn in October 1855, as Mate in command of the Mortar Vessel Raven, on which occasion he was accompanied by Lieutenant Festing, R.M.A., for operation of the mortar itself. Promoted to Lieutenant in June 1856, he later served aboard the Edinburgh of the Coastguard at Leith, Scotland. Lieutenant Hurt appears to have quit the service in 1859.