Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Gaieta 24 July 1815 (Edward Hooper.) some light marks, otherwise good very fine and rare to ship £1,800-£2,200

Sotheby’s, March 1986; Spink Numismatic Circular, April 1988.

Edward Hooper is confirmed on the roll as a Private 3rd Class in the Royal Marines aboard H.M.S. Woodlark, a brig-sloop of 16 guns.

Two Royal Marines, Edward Hooper and William Spooner, are shown on the Admiralty roll as being present at Gaieta aboard H.M.S. Woodlark, which ship, however, is not listed as being present in the official list of ships present at the action and entitled to the clasp. Only two ships, Berwick and Malta, are shown as having taken part in this engagement and Woodlark’s two Privates and one Able Seaman from Princess Augusta (described as His Majesty’s Yacht) are the only men in the roll noted as being from other ships. However, examination of Woodlark’s Master’s Log for July to December 1815 shows that from 1 July to 7 August she was almost invariably ‘Standing off and blockading Gaieta’. The fortress finally fell on 8 August and from then on until 19 August, the ship is recorded as being mostly ‘at anchor’ or ‘moored’ in Gaieta Bay. On 24 July itself, she was ‘standing off and blockading Gaieta’ with ‘Berwick and several gunboats in company’; more importantly the Master notes that his Captain, William Whitfield Esq, visited Berwick at noon and did not return until 7 p.m. The authorities were clearly persuaded that both Woodlark and Princess Augusta were present at Gaieta but the official Navy List entry was never altered to take account of the fact.

Edward Hooper had entered Woodlark on 1 June 1814, from Chatham Barracks, a member of Company No. 7. He was discharged back to Chatham on 8 July 1816, and was discharged from the Royal Marines on 16 July 1816, in consequence of a ‘reduction of the Corps’. He was admitted to the Greenwich Hospital on 5 June 1848, then aged 64.

Sold with copied discharge certificate and other research.