Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Ashantee 1873-74, no clasp (Comr. A. T. Stubbs, R.N. H.M.S. Seagull, 73-74) silver-plated and lacquered, otherwise good very fine £600-700

Ernest Augustus Travers Stubbs entered the Royal Navy in June 1846, becoming Sub-Lieutenant in August 1852, Lieutenant in November 1854, Commander in September 1865, and retired as Captain on 28 February 1882. Captain Stubbs saw much service while in Pluto, up the African rivers, and commanded boats in the same in active suppression of the slave trade. He was Gunnery Mate of Tribune in the Black Sea in 1854, and assisted at landing the troops in the Crimea. Present at the battle of the Alma, bombarding and covering the troops on shore, he also assisted in embarking the wounded. He was Gunnery Officer of Tribune at the attack on Sebastopol, served in the trenches with the Naval Brigade, and was present at the battle of Inkermann (promoted to Lieutenant; Crimean and Turkish medals, Sebastopol and Inkermann clasps). Lieutenant Stubbs served aboard the Royal George in the Baltic in 1855 (Baltic medal).

In China, Stubbs was present at the blockade of the Canton river in 1857, and assisted in building the batteries on Dutch Folly forts, and in the bombardment of Canton in December of that year. In May 1858, he was slightly wounded whilst in command of the small-arm men at the capture of the Peiho forts; and served with Lord Elgin’s Embassy until the signing of the treaty in June 1858. He next served up the Yang-tse-Kiang river in Cruizer in action with rebels at Nankin and Gan-Klin. He was present at the attack on the Peiho forts in June 1859, in command of small-arm men, rocket and ladder parties working the guns of Cormorant, and assisting her crew, the ship being disabled by the enemy’s fire, and landed with the Naval Brigade; he was next employed surveying the Gulf of Pechali; served in the operations of 1860, and commanded the small-arm men with four rocket boats at the attack on the Peiho forts, and served in the Peiho river until the Peace of Pekin (China medal, Canton and two Taku clasps).

Lieutenant Stubbs next served in Spider in the River Uruguay, during the Brazilian war, and was witness of several actions, was mentioned in Foreign Office and Commander-in-Chief’s despatches, and promoted to Commander. He was Inspecting Commander of Coast Guard at Dingle, Ireland, during the Fenian outbreak there in 1866-69.

He commanded Seagull on the West Coast of Africa, was present at the transfer of the Gold Coast by the Dutch Authorities at St George d’Elmina, and was Senior Naval Officer on the Coast and at Cape Coast Castle when the Ashantee troops crossed the River Prah and re-entered into English territory. Stubbs prepared for the defence of Cape Coast Castle and Elmina, was present at the battle of Elmina on 13 June 1873, and personally made the King of Elmina a prisoner, and took him to Cape Coast Castle, for which services he received the thanks of the Administrator-in-Chief of the West African Settlements (Ashantee medal). In August 1873, he settled several disputes up the Lagoons, near Lagos. He next fitted out and conveyed Flora from Ascension to the Cape of Good Hope, and was employed on an important mission to the Governor of St Jago de Cuba, relative to the capture of an English merchant vessel and an English subject who had been made prisoner. Prior to his retirement in February 1882, Captain Stubbs was Senior Officer in the Canadian Fisheries. He was in receipt of a Greenwich Hospital Pension and was later a J.P. for the county of Dublin.