Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An interesting campaign and Arctic exploration group of three awarded to Vice-Admiral P. H. Colomb, Royal Navy, a brilliant “theoretical” tactician and strategist, and the inventor of “Colomb’s Flashing Signals System”, an important means of night signalling that was adopted by the Royal Navy at large in 1867 - ‘There is no one man perhaps to whom the Navy of today owes so much as it does to Admiral Colomb’ (his Times obituary refers)

India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Pegu, naming erased; Arctic 1818-55 (P. H. Colomb, Mate, H.M.S. Phoenix), contemporary engraved naming; Baltic 1854-55 (Lieut. Colomb, H.M.S. Hastings), contemporary engraved naming, together with an Institute of Naval Architect’s prize medal, silver, unnamed, the second and third with traces of repair to suspension, contact wear and edge bruising, otherwise generally very fine (4) £900-1200

Philip Howard Colomb was born in Scotland in May 1831, the third son of General George Colomb, onetime the Lord Mayor of Dublin. Entering the Royal Navy as a Midshipman in February 1846, he served on the Irish and Mediterranean stations until removing to H.M.S. Reynard on the China station in 1849, aboard which ship he was still employed when she was wrecked on the Plata Shoal in May 1851, a correspondent in The Times reporting that the crew were fortunate indeed to reach land - ‘The force of the ship striking, with the heavy sea, was dreadful; the oldest seaman was surprised to see the ship hold together for so long’. While for his own part, on getting back to Hong Kong, Colomb bitterly regretted the loss of some 80 sketches he had made of the China coast, his wordly possessions reduced to ‘a flannel shirt, a pair of trousers, a straw hat and half a blanket.’

Next appointed to the Serpent as a Mate, he participated in the Pegu operations of the Burma War 1852-53, when he was present at the capture of Rangoon, while in March 1854, he embarked upon a rather different enterprise, namely a voyage to Arctic waters in the Phoenix, commanded by Captain (afterwards Admiral) Sir Edward Inglefield. Then in February 1855, having been appointed Lieutenant of the Hastings, he saw further active service in the Baltic when he was present at the bombardment of Sveaborg that August - his drawings of the action were later published as prints.

But it was his subsequent appointments to the Excellent gunnery establishment in May 1856 and stints of service as a Flag Lieutenant to Sir Thomas Pasley and Sir Thomas Symonds 1857-58, that proved the turning point in Colomb’s career, when they brought him into more direct contact with the prevailing system of signals. Indeed after months of hard work in the course of the latter year, he established what became known as “Colomb’s Flashing Signals” - in fact an application of the telegraphic system known as Morse’s, in which the movements of the needle were replaced by long and short flashes from a lamp by night, or blasts from a fog horn or steam whistle in fog.

Having successfully demonstrated his new system to Admiral Sir Sidney Dacres - even though given just fifteen minutes to instruct the signalmen concerned - it was adopted by every ship of the Channel Fleet and by many in the Mediterranean and, in February 1867, by every ship in the Royal Navy; see Encyclopaedia Britannica, among many other sources, for further details.

Colomb, who had been advanced to Commander in December 1863, returned to sea in July 1868, when he was appointed to the command of the Dryad for anti-slavery patrols on the East India Station, a commission that lasted until June 1870 and resulted in the publication of his book, Slave Catching in the Indian Ocean, a chapter in the Royal Navy’s history so conveniently dismissed by the “revisionists”. Indeed Colomb’s bluejackets always took great care of their liberated charges:
‘I did not expect to see a prettier sight than I was witness of for several days in succession when watching the conduct of the bluejackets towards the negroes. Some of them who had been captured on shore after landing were sadly cut about the feet - especially the women and children - from running over the rocks. It was an established habit of the men - notably of the older Petty Officers - to carry them about in their arms, when it was necessary to move them from one part of the ship to another, so as to save them from putting their wounded feet on the deck. Then the doctoring which went on, the care with which cooling poultices were applied, and the careful bandaging, would have done credit to a village hospital; and that it was a spontaneous piece of charity made it all the more engaging to observe. I should say the poor creatures never had before, and certainly will never have again, such gentle treatment as they received at the hands of our English seamen.’

Having been advanced to Captain in April 1870, Colomb was next employed at the Admiralty preparing the manual of fleet evolutions, officially issued in 1874, but once more returned to sea with command of the Audacious on the China station 1874-77, and subsequently the Thunderer in the Mediterranean 1880-81. His final appointment was at Portsmouth and he retired as a Rear-Admiral in April 1887. Yet in retirement Colomb remained active in all matters’ naval, was a regular contributor to the pages of The Times, attended the Washington Maritime Conference in 1889, and achieved great acclaim as a ‘theoretical’ tactician and strategist, not least for his Naval Warfare and Essays on Naval Defence. Less well-known is the fact he was largely responsible for a history of the 45th Regiment, but it was published following his death under another author’s name, a bone of contention that the late Admiral’s family discussed in correspondence to The Times - see John C. Welch’s related article, The History of the 45th Regiment (O.M.R.S. Journal, Spring 2001).

Colomb, who was advanced on the Retired List to Vice-Admiral in August 1892, was ‘one of the most profound students of naval affairs of his day’, and ‘a Gold Medallist of the Royal United Services Institute, a Younger Brother of Trinity House, Fellow of the R.G.S. and Nautical Assessor to the House of Lords’. He died at his residence, Steeple Court, at Botley, Hampshire in October 1899, aged 68 years; sold with a file of research, including copy ship photographs, etc.