Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare First China War and ‘Franklin Search’ Arctic Medal pair awarded to Captain William Chimmo, Royal Navy, F.R.G.S., F.L.S., F.R.A.S., F.M.S., an energetic hydrogapher and explorer for many years

China 1842 (W. Chimmo, Clerk’s Asst, H.M.S. Cornwallis.) original suspension neatly re-affixed; Arctic Medal 1818-55, unnamed as issued, each fitted with contemporary brooch pin, the first with some obverse pitting from tunic buttons, otherwise good very fine (2) £3,000-£4,000

Purchased Baldwin’s, December 1980, together with related ‘miniature’ awards.

William Chimmo was born in Cork, Ireland, on 23 April 1826, and entered the Royal Navy as Clerk’s Assistant in 1841. He served in the Cornwallis 72, flagship of Sir William Parkes, and Modeste 18, Captain Rundle Burges Watson, during the operations on the coast of China, where he was present at the capture of Woosung, Chapoo, and Chin-Kiang-Foo (Medal). Promoted to Midshipman in 1844, he passed his examination for seamanship in January 1848, and served as Acting-Mate and, from October 1850, Acting-Lieutenant of the Herald 22, surveying vessel, under Captain Henry Kellett, in the Pacific during 1845-51, whence he returned home and was paid off. During that period Herald worked around south and central America, up to the Kamchatka peninsula and then back down to the west coast of central and south America again for the winter. She went north again in March 1849 and returned to Mazatlan, on the west coast of Mexico, in November. By mid-July 1850 she was in Kotzbue Sound and in “Arctic Seas” for the musters of 28 July to 25 August 1850. She was at Honolulu at the end of October whence she returned to the U.K. via Hong Kong and Cape of Good Hope, reaching Sheerness in early June 1851 to pay off. (Arctic Medal).

In February 1852, he was appointed to the command of the Torch, tender to his former ship Herald, in Australia, where he rescued the crew of the Ning-po, 15 in number, who had been shipwrecked on the D’Entrecasteaux reef in 1854. In January 1855, Chimmo was sent in Torch to the Percy Islands in search of the Government Geologist, Frederick Strange, and his party who, with the exception of the botanist Walter Hill had been murdered by Aboriginals. The Torch returned to Sydney having captured nine Aboriginals who subsequently appeared in court charged with murder. See Chimmo’s Report of the Proceedings of H.M. Steam Vessel “Torch” in Search of Mr. Strange and his Companions, 12 March 1855, in New South Wales, Search by H.M.S. “Torch” for the Survivors of the ‘Ningpo’, and for the Remains of the Late Mr. Strange and his Companions. [Sydney]: Legislative Council 1855.
As additional Lieutenant of Juno, January to December 1856, he led the successful searching party for the lost expedition of Mr. Gregory and party in Torres Straits. Chimmo was Secretary to the Hydrogapher of the Admiralty, 1856-58, and during this period assisted in the magnetic observations of the Royal Charter to Australia, He commanded Seagull, May 1858 to January 1862, in the survey of the West Coast of Scotland; was additional Lieutenant in Fisgard commanded by Commodore Frederick Nicolson, surveying from January 1862 to March 1865, and as additional Commander in that vessel from January 1864.

In July 1865 he was appointed Commander in Gannet in the West Indies, engaged in the survey of Trinidad and the exploration of Labrador, until paid off in October 1868. He was next appointed as Commander of Nassau, April 1870 to April 1873, engaged in surveying work in China, and in the exploration of the Sulu Islands where he was attacked by pirates in an episode described by Clowes in his History of the Royal Navy:

‘In May 1872, while the Nassau, 4, screw surveying vessel, Commander William Chimmo, was engaged in the performance of her duties in the Sulu Sea, she had occasion to land a boat’s crew on the north-east end of Sulu Island, where it was desired to take bearings. The party was attacked on May 11th by forty or fifty Illanoon pirates, and had to retreat fighting, several people, including Navigating Lieutenant Francis John Gray, being wounded. Attempts were made to secure satisfaction, it being at first supposed that the natives had mistaken the British for Spaniards; but, as the enemy, during prolonged negotiations, displayed a truculent attitude, the Nassau eventually shelled and destroyed their village, Carang-Carang. During the operations about 190 of the pirates were believed to have been killed.’

In March 1873 Nassau returned to Malta, and Chimmo retired from active employment with the rank of Captain in October 1873. Chimmo retired to Weymouth where he spent most of his declining years as Hon. Secretary of the Weymouth and County Club. He was the author of several varied works and reports, including, The voyage of H.M.S. Torch from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria and Batavia, 1857; Bed of the Atlantic; from one sounding of 12,000 feet deep in the Atlantic Ocean, in latitude 47 north, longitude 23 west, are taken upwards of one hundred minute organisms, 1870; and The natural history of the Euplectella aspergillum (Venus’s flower-basket) from the Philippine Islands, 1878. Captain William Chimmo died at Westdown Lodge, Wyke Regis, Dorset, on 30 October 1891.

Sold with a copy of The White Ribbon by Neville Poulsom which contains mention of Chimmo.

For the related ‘miniature’ medals worn by Captain Chimmo, see Lot 716.