Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Commander J. J. Arrow, Royal Navy

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 engraved clasp, Egypt (J. J. Arrow. R.N.) contemporarily engraved naming; France, Kingdom, Ordy of the Lily, silver, about extremely fine (2) £400-£500

John Jordan Arrow entered the Royal Navy on 1 April 1800, as a First Class Volunteer on board the Kent, 74 guns, in which he escorted Sir Ralph Abercromby from Gibraltar to Egypt, and took part, as Midshipman, in the campaign of 1801. He removed, in October 1803, to the Active, 38 guns, on the Home station; and officiated afterwards, from 22 May to 21 July 1806, as Acting-Lieutenant of the Espiègle, 18 guns, off the coast of Ireland. He then sailed for the West Indies in the Oepheus, and on 12 August 1807, was there confirmed, from the Northumberland, 74 guns, to a Lieutenancy in the Jason, 32 guns.
During a continuance of nearly seven years in the Jason, Arrow commanded a party at the destruction of a French West Indiaman, under a heavy fire from the island of Margarita, in 1807; assisted, with the Cleopatra, 32 guns, in capturing the French frigate La Topaze, of 38 guns, off Guadeloupe on 22 January 1809; was present at the ensuing reduction of the Saintes; and, in 1813-14, shared, as First Lieutenant, in many active operations on the river Scheldt, particularly in an unsuccessful attack made by the boats of the Jason and Amphion.
From the Jason, which ship bore the flag of the Duke of Clarence when H.R.H. escorted Louis XVIII to France, Arrow was at length promoted to the rank of Commander on 16 May 1814. He was subsequently employed in the Coast Guard from 6 January 1820, and at the time of his retirement was the Senior Officer in that service.

The Decoration of the Lily was presumably awarded to Arrow in recognition of is services in H.M.S. Jason whilst conveying Louis XVIII to France following Napoleon’s first abdication in 1814.

Note: ‘The Naval Log of H.M.S. Kent, being ‘A Journal of the Proceedings of His Majesty’s Ship Kent, commencing 1 May 1800 and ending 7 October 1803, and compiled by John Jordan Arrow, Midshipman’, was recently sold at auction at Bonham’s in December 2020.

Another contemporarily engraved miniature NGS to this man is known to exist.