Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Matthew Boulton’s Medal for Trafalgar 1805, bronzed copper, impressed in the reverse field ‘John Potts, Midsm. HMS. Conqueror’, fitted with claw and ring suspension, nearly extremely fine £300-£400

Dix Noonan Webb, June 2005.

John Potts entered the Royal Navy on 7 October 1800, as a First Class Volunteer on board the Assistance 50 guns, in which ship, having attained the rating of Midshipman, he was wrecked between Dunkirk and Gravelines on 29 March 1802. Joining next, in March, 1803, the Conqueror 74 guns, he served under Captain Israel Pellew in Nelson's pursuit of the combined squadrons to the West Indies and back, and at the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805.

On 7 May, 1808, a few days after his removal to the Hibernia 120 guns, flagship of Sir Charles Cotton at Lisbon, Potts was made Lieutenant into the Eclipse sloop; and in that vessel he was employed, on the Channel, East and West India, and Cape of Good Hope stations, until
July, 1814. He remained thenceforward on half-pay. He died in 1847.

Note: Bronzed copper medals were struck by the Soho Mint as specimens or souvenirs and not for award to participants in the battle of Trafalgar.