Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Eight: Battery Sergeant Major Thomas Mellows, Shanghai Volunteers, late Royal Navy

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, 1 clasp, Alexandria 11th July (T. Mellowes, Ord. H.M.S. “Superb”); China 1900, no clasp (Bty.-Serjt.-Maj. T. Mellows, Shanghai Vols.); Khedive’s Star 1882; Shanghai Jubilee Medal 1893 (T. Mellows); Shanghai Volunteer Corps Long Service (T. Mellows, Act.1892-1921); China, Empire, Imperial Order of the Double Dragon, 2nd type (1902-12), 3rd class, 3rd grade, upper coral stone lacking, central section loose and reverse with additional pin fitting; China, Republic, Order of the Golden Grain, 4th class breast badge, silver and enamels, China, Republic, Military Merit Medal [Inst. 1913], 2nd class, silver and enamels, the reverse engraved (T. Mellows, Esq., Shanghai) together with a Shanghai Volunteer Corps H.Q. Staff Officers enamelled collar badge, edge bruising and contact marks, otherwise nearly very fine or better (9) £1800-2200

Thomas Mellows was born in the Parish of St Peter’s, Nottingham, on 27 January 1861, and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd class aboard H.M.S. Boscawen, on 15 April 1879. He joined Superb in October 1880 as a Boy 1st class, was advanced to Ordinary Seaman in January 1882, and served in Egypt during the Egyptian war of 1882, including the bombardment of Alexandria on 11th July. Mellows was advanced to Able Seaman in January 1883, and to Leading Seaman in May 1887. He was discharged, time expired, from H.M.S. Caroline at Shanghai on 27 January 1892. Mellows clearly took a liking to Shanghai and appears to have remained there for at least the next thirty years. As a member of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps he received the Shanghai Jubilee Medal in 1893 and served as Battery Sergeant Major of the corps during the Boxer rebellion in 1900. Little more is known of Mellows and the award of the Chinese decorations remain unconfirmed but entirely plausible.