Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

The Schomberg family group:

Pair: Vice-Admiral C. F. Schomberg, Royal Navy

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (Lieut., R.N.); St. Jean d’Acre Medal 1840, silver, pierced with ring suspension,

China 1842 (Herbert Schomberg, Commander, R.N.), original straight bar suspension, slight edge bruise to reverse, good very fine (3)
£1200-1400

Charles Frederick Schomberg was the eldest son of Vice-Admiral A. W. Schomberg by his second wife, Anne Smith. He was educated at the Royal Naval College from which he joined the Royal Navy in May 1829. He obtained his commission in June 1838 and was appointed to the Hastings, on which ship he saw service on and off the coast of Syria during 1840. He was mentioned in the despatches of Captain Lawrence of the Hastings (London Gazette 17 November 1840) for his part in an action at Beirut during October 1840. In the action, Commander Worth, with Lieutenant Schomberg and others, together with three boat’s crews were successful in destroying or carrying off two hundred barrels of gunpowder from the vicinity of a fort in the city. Promoted Commander in February 1844, he was strongly recommended for promotion by the Earl of Dundonald for his service aboard the Wellesley during 1848. He served on the Edinburgh in 1862 and Captained the Naval Volunteer Force. He retired as Captain on 12 September 1864 and was made Rear-Admiral in May 1867. Schomberg was ‘thanked’ and noted in his record ‘For management of Life Boats at Holyhead’ in December 1867. He was promoted Vice-Admiral Retired on 29 May 1873 and died the following year on 29 September whilst serving as Queen’s Harbour Master at Holyhead.

Herbert Schomberg was born on 18 December 1803, the only son of Vice-Admiral A. W. Schomberg by his first wife, Catherine Anne Stepney. He entered the Royal Naval College in December 1817 and embarked as a Volunteer aboard the Phaeton in December 1819. He served aboard the ship for four years, off the coast of North America, in the Channel and in the West Indies where the ship was employed in the suppression of piracy. He was promoted Lieutenant in September 1827. He served aboard the Orestes, February 1828 - September 1829 and was engaged in anti-smuggling operations on and off the coast of Ireland and in the blockade of Tangiers. Schomberg joined the Melville in January 1836, which was employed as flagship on the North America, West Indies, Cape of Good Hope and China Stations. He was First Lieutenant aboard the Melville when the ship was hove down at Chusan and also at the capture of the Bogue Forts. The latter affair gained him promotion to Commander in June 1841. During the summer of 1850, in command of the six-gun ship Cormorant, he was employed against slavers along the S.E. coast of America. Having captured and destroyed the noted slaver Rival in the Rio Frio by means of his ship’s boats under Lieutenant C. M. Luckraft, he then sailed for the bay of Paranagua which resulted in the capture of one and the destruction of three other slave ships. When leaving the bay, the Cormorant was engaged by a fort, which disputed the British ship’s action. Despite this, the Cormorant made it out to sea, suffering one man killed and two wounded in the action.

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