Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., Anchor obverse (Wm. Hutchinson Quarter Master H.M.S. Ocean 26 Years) pierced with ring and silver bar suspension, contact marks, nearly very fine £800-£1,000

Provenance: Spink, March 1996.

Hutchinson’s 2-clasp N.G.S. for Navarino and Syria was in the Murray Collection, sold by Sotheby in 1926, and was again sold by Sotheby in March 1984.

William Hutchinson must have joined the Royal Navy in about 1817 but is first traced as an Able Seaman aboard H.M.S. Topaze on 26 April 1819. He went to Sparrowhawk in the same rate on 17 October 1823, being appointed to Captain of the Forecastle on 1 May 1824, and to Naiad in the same rate on 7 September 1825. His next ship was Talbot which he joined as Guns Crew on 27 August 1826, being appointed Captain of the Mast on 1 January 1827, and Captain of the Forecastle on 10 July 1827. In this rate he was present at the battle of Navarino on 20 October that year. For some reason he was disrated to Able Seaman for about a month on 10 March but was reappointed to his previous rate on 13 April. He was paid off from Talbot on 20 December 1828, and joined Madagascar as Ship’s Corporal the following day. He was next appointed to Melville as Guns Crew on 9 December 1831, being appointed Quartermaster on 17 December 1831, and Admiral’s Coxswain on 28 August 1833, until he was paid off on 4 July 1835. His next commissions were aboard Cleopatra which he joined as Captain of the Forecastle on 10 September 1835, Ocean which he joined as Quartermaster on 21 November 1838, and Raven which he joined as Boatswain’s Mate on 15 May 1839. He joined Benbow in the same rate on 28 June 1839, becoming Quartermaster on 15 August 1840, and taking part in this rate in the operations off the coast of Syria later in the year, even though his record of service shows him as being reduced to Able Seaman from 16 October 1840 to 13 May 1841, when he was appointed as Ship’s Cook until being paid off a year later. For his final commission he returned to his former ship Ocean as Quartermaster on 24 May 1842, remaining in this ship until finally paid off on 30 June 1846. He received his Medal and Gratuity on 12 December 1846.

Sold with copied record of service from April 1819.