Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Lissa (George Bally), renamed in old neatly engraved capitals, with gilt metal anchor riband fitment and Bailey, Coventry laurel brooch bar for wearing, edge nicks, very fine £400-500

George Bally does not appear on the published rolls, so may have been a late claimant, many hundreds of Medals & clasps having been issued after May 1851, but for which no roll survives. In his article The Mysterious Mr. Bally (O.M.R.S. Journal, September 2007), G. W. Hawkes discusses the possibility that ‘George Bally’ might in fact be a clerical corruption of an Italian recipient’s names, ‘Georgeo Dallie’, who was present at Lissa in H.M.S. Amphion - a search of the musters of all four ships present in the action reveals the latter to be the most likely candidate. If so, he was born in Trieste in 1789, and his appointment to the Amphion as an Ordinary Seaman marked the commencement of his career. Following the Lissa action in March 1811, he removed to the receiving or depot ship Namur, and thence to Warrior, from which latter ship he was discharged in November 1814, together with a number of other foreign ratings.