Orders, Decorations and Medals

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, St. Vincent, Martinique (A. Kennedy, Volr. 1st Class) fitted with ornate ribbon brooch, some light marks, otherwise good very fine £4000-5000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The collection of Medals formed by the Late Clive Nowell.

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Andrew Kennedy is confirmed as a Volunteer First Class aboard H.M.S. Victory at St Vincent and as a Midshipman aboard H.M.S. Penelope at the capture of Martinique

Andrew Kennedy was born at Devonport on 24 August 1787. His father was 55 years in the Service and the young Andrew probably served at sea with him, being present at the battle of St Vincent when he was borne as a Volunteer First Class on the books of the Victory, Admiral Jervis’s flagship. He officially entered the Navy on 5 January 1808, as a Volunteer on board the Penelope 36, Captain John Dick, under whom he served as a Midshipman at the reduction of Martinique in February 1809. Whilst in this ship he lost the tops of three fingers of his right hand through an accident. Kennedy was subsequently actively employed on the Newfoundland and Halifax stations in various ships and was promoted to Lieutenant in February 1815

From June 1824 to July 1827 he served on the North American and West India stations, as First Lieutenant of the Niemen 28. In September 1828 he was appointed to the command of the African, the first Government steamer stationed between Corfu and Ancona, in which he was employed in carrying despatches relative to the war between Turkey and Russia, and also in communicating with the Pacha of Egypt on the subject of steam with India. He afterwards commanded the Hermes steam vessel, the Alban and Spitfire Falmouth packets, and the Acheron steamer

In the Alban, the first steam-vessel that returned to England from the West Indies, Lieutenant Kennedy went 208 miles up the river Orinoco, as far as Angostura, where no British man-of-war had ever before been. He proved, in the Spitfire, what had before been doubted, namely, the ability on the part of a steamer to resist the effects of a hurricane; and when in the Acheron he conveyed to Sir Robert Stopford the despatches directing the attack upon St Jean d’Acre, and gave passage to the British ambassador from Constantinople to Malta, and thence to Naples. Advanced to Commander in May 1842, he died in 1854.