Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas

The Matthew Boulton’s Medal for Trafalgar 1805 worn by Peter Moser (alias Reynolds) who served as an Able Seaman on board the Victory

Matthew Boulton’s Medal for Trafalgar 1805, white metal (P. Reynolds, Victory) contemporary engraved naming in reverse field, fitted with rings for suspension, corrosion and pitting, therefore fine and rare £2,000-£2,400

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas.

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Peter Moser (alias Reynolds) received the N.G.S. medal with 3 clasps and is confirmed in the application books for 17 June 1795 (as Moser), Gut of Gibraltar 12 July 1801 (as Moser), and Trafalgar (as Reynolds). Having been ‘beached’ after the peace in 1802, he was unfortunately ‘pressed’ the following year and began using the alias name of Peter Reynolds. In this name he fought aboard the Victory at Trafalgar but his medal, when it was issued over forty years later, bore the name Peter Moser to which he had by then reverted. With the confusion of names it is unsurprising that this medal became separated from his N.G.S. medal which now forms part of the Douglas-Morris Collection at the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.

However, there is more to his story. Discharged from the Navy as Peter Reynolds in early September 1812, now rated as Sailmaker’s Mate, he next appears in 1826, when on 22 July he is admitted as an ‘In Pensioner’ to Greenwich Hospital in the name of Peter Moser. During his time at Greenwich Hospital he was gainfully employed as a Boatswain’s Mate and subsequently advanced to Boatswain in 1831. He appears in the well known painting by Andrew Morton ‘Naval pensioners at the Royal Hospital at Greenwich entertaining Army pensioners at Chelsea, in the Painted Hall’, and now on display at the National Maritime Museum.

Furthermore, in 1844, Peter Moser (alias Reynolds) received one of the Nelson Testimonial Medals struck for presentation to the Royal Marine guard-of-honour who were present at the ceremonial opening of Nelson’s Column, and also to the men who fought under Nelson at Cape St Vincent, Teneriffe, The Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar, who, at the time of the opening, were pensioners in the Naval Hospital at Greenwich. The full story of Peter Moser (alias Reynolds) is told in Naval Medals 1793-1856 by Captain K. J. Douglas-Morris, together with illustrations of Morton’s painting (all participants identified) and of the presentation of the Testimonial Medals.

Peter Moser died at Greenwich on 21 August 1856.