Auction Catalogue

22 September 2006

Starting at 11:30 AM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

Grand Connaught Rooms  61 - 65 Great Queen St  London  WC2B 5DA

Lot

№ 552

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22 September 2006

Hammer Price:
£240

China 1857-60, 1 clasp, Taku Forts 1860 (A. H. G. Richardson, Lieutenant, H.M.S. Impérieuse), engraved naming, some contact marks, about very fine £200-240

Arthur Hart Gurney Richardson entered the Royal Navy as a Naval Cadet on Ajax on 7 November 1851. Transferred to the Trincomalee in July 1852, he was promoted to Midshipman in November the same year and Mate in November 1856. With the Trincomalee he was present in conveying provisions to ships in the Bering Straits, 1854; present in 1855 at the occupation of Petropaulovski and the blockade of Sitka and served with an expeditionary force in 1856 against the Cowichin Indians of Vancouver Island. Posted as Mate on the Styx in November 1857, he was promoted to Lieutenant on the Impérieuse on 22 June 1859. With that ship he was present at the occupation of Chusan and commanded a rocket-boat the capture of the Peiho Forts during 1860, and commanded the Starling at the capture of Kias-chou and at the destruction of piratical junks off Plover Point on the Yangtse-Kiang. Attached to the Naval Brigade, he commanded a company in the storm and capture of Tsingpoo, the capture, relief and recapture of Kah-ding, the capture of the entrenched camps of Wong-ka-dsa and Lu-ka-kong and the fortified towns and stockades of Sen-dong, Narzian, See-poo, Tser-poo and others. He commanded a launch at the bombardment and capture of Na-jaor and with his company engaged and drove off a mounted party of Taipings and a large body of infantry on the banks of the Woosung, near Shanghai in March 1862. Richardson then served as a Lieutenant aboard the Edgar in July 1863, and the Duncan in January 1864; then served as Acting Commander of the Niger, November 1965, before returning to the Duncan as Flag Lieutenant, November 1865-June 1867. Previously thanked for his good services in China; he received the Thanks of the Admiralty for his services at the wreck of the passenger steamer Spartan near the Lachine Rapids on the St. Lawrence River, 1865, ‘because his conduct reflects credit on the service, and to his exertions and sound judgement the safety of the numerous passengers was in a great measure attributed, and much loss of life prevented’. Appointed a Commander in the Coastguard on 1 July 1870, he retired with the rank of Captain in 1882. Sold with copied service details.