Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (J. F. A. Symonds, Lieut. R. Engrs.) good very fine and rare £3,000-£4,000

Dix Noonan Webb, June 2000.

Confirmed on the roll for H.M.S. Hecate at Syria, for service aboard which vessel the Royal Engineers received medals for only 2 officers, together with five sappers. A further two engineer officers and seven sappers had medals for Syria for service aboard various other ships. A total of only 40 medals were issued to the army for Syria.

Julian Frederick Anthony Symonds was commissioned into the Royal Engineers as a Second Lieutenant from the R.M.A. Woolwich on 1 August 1833. After a period of Field Instruction at the R.E. Establishment at Chatham he was for eight years employed on Engineer Duties in Bermuda, Devonport, and at Woolwich. In November 1840 he was sent on special duty in Syria, under the Foreign Office, and remained there until February 1842. During that time he took part in the operations off the coast of Syria and, in company with Lieutenant-Colonel R. C. Alderson, was in charge of a detachment of Royal Sappers and Miners aboard the steam frigate Hecate.

In August 1842, Symonds was attached, by permission of the King of Prussia, to the Prussian Corps of Engineers, for the purpose of witnessing the construction of Federal fortresses in Germany. From August 1846 to April 1847 he was engaged in Engineer Duties in Malta, and was ordered to Corfu during February of the latter year. In April 1847 he was posted for service in the Ionian Islands and, from March 1849, he held the post of Resident to administer the Government of Cephalonia. Major Symonds died in that service, at Argostoli, on 8 August 1852, aged 38 years.