Pair: Lieutenant E. A. Blackett, Royal Navy

NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (Midshipman); BALTIC 1854-55 (Lieut., H.M.S. Cressy) contemporary engraved naming, nearly extremely fine (2)

Edward Algernon Blackett was born in 1824 and entered the Royal Navy in March 1838 as first class volunteer aboard H.M.S. Malabar. He served as Midshipman in the Implaccable during the operations of 1840 on the coast of Syria. While attached to the Harlequin he assisted in the suppression of piracy in the Indian Archipelago during 1843 and 44. After passing his examination in seamanship in 1844, and at the R.N. College in 1845, he served on Excellent at Portsmouth before being promoted Lieutenant aboard Fury, in which ship he returned to the East Indies. On 1 October 1849 he participated in an action which lasted three hours and terminated in the total destruction of a Chinese piratical fleet of 26 ships, carrying 600 guns and 1800 men (400 of whom were killed), and defended by two powerful batteries in Bias Bay. He also contributed to the defeat at Chocum, in the Gulf of Tonguin, of 64 other pirate vessels, having on board upwards of 2000 guns and nearly 4000 men. On board Cressy he took part in the two campaigns in the Baltic.