Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, 29 Aug Boat Service 1800, Egypt (James Neville. Lieut.) original naming erased and re-engraved ‘upside down’ in contemporary serif capitals, otherwise extremely fine and an interesting piece £1,400-£1,800

A medal correctly named with just the Boat Service clasp, of which 25 were issued, is known in a private collection. The example above could well be a privately commissioned piece from Hunt & Roskell sometime after the clasp for ‘Egypt’ was sanctioned in February 1851.

James Neville entered the Navy, in 1794, as First-class Volunteer, on board the Cerberus 32, Captains John Drew and James Macnamara. In that ship, besides sharing as Midshipman in many privateer actions, he took part, off Ferrol, 20 October 1799, in a most gallant and all but successful attack upon one of five Spanish frigates in escort, with two armed brigs, of a large convoy of merchantmen. Becoming Master’s Mate, in May 1800, of the Iphigenia frigate, Captain Hassard Stackpoole, he obtained command, on the night of 29 August following, of one of the boats of a squadron, 20 in number, under the orders of Lieutenant Henry Burke, and assisted in cutting out, close to the batteries in Vigo Bay, La Guêpe privateer, of 18 guns and 161 men, which vessel, 25 of whose people were killed and 40 wounded, was in 15 minutes boarded and carried, with a loss to the British of 3 seamen and 1 marine killed, 3 Lieutenants, 12 seamen, and 5 marines wounded, and 1 seaman missing. While Acting Senior-Lieutenant of the same ship, which was soon afterwards burnt in Aboukir Bay, Mr. Neville was present at the landing of the troops in Egypt in March, 1801. In June of that year he was again ordered to act as Lieutenant in the Northumberland 74, Captain George Martin, attached to the force in the Mediterranean; and on 3 December 1802, he was officially promoted. His succeeding appointments were – 8 April 1803, and 21 July 1804, to the Texel 64 and Malabar 50, Captains Hon. George Byng and Robert Hall, employed off Margate and in the North Sea; 5 July 1805, to the Dart sloop, Captains William Brownrigg, Hon. Michael De Courcy, Joseph Spear, and Thomas Tudor Tucker, in the West Indies; 11 April, 1807, to the Venus 32, Captain Henry Matson, on the same station, whence, in the ensuing June, he returned with convoy to England; 8 March 1808, to the Delphinea 18, Captain Richard Harward, which vessel was cast away five months afterwards on the coast of Holland; 17 December 1808, for a few weeks, to the Eclipse sloop, Captain Richard Creyke; 3 November and 26 December 1810, to the Ganymede and Statira frigates, commanded by Captain Hassard Stackpoole in the West Indies and on the North American station, whence he invalided in November 1812; 3 July 1813, for two years, to the Forth 44, Captain Sir William Bolton, employed at first in the North Sea, and then again on the American coast; and, 7 April 1826, in a similar capacity, to the Perseus receiving-ship off the Tower, Captain James Couch.

On 19 September 1814, being at the time Senior of the Forth, he took command of her boats, captured by boarding, and afterwards destroyed, at the mouth of Little Egg Harbour (U.S.A), the American letter-of-marque brig Regent, of 5 guns and 35 men, 2 of whom were wounded, with a loss to the British of himself and 1 seaman wounded. He attained his present rank on 2 September 1828, and has since been on half-pay. He was awarded, 23 October 1815, a pension of £91- 5s. per annum for his wounds.