Orders, Decorations and Medals

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Egypt, Algiers (T. Revans, Flag Lieut. R.N.) good very fine £900-1200

Thomas Revans was born at Lymington in October 1781, the youngest of six brothers. One of these lost his right arm in action and was killed at St Domingo in 1797; and another, a Master R.N., was severely wounded at the reduction of the island of Grenada in 1794. Thomas Revans entered the Navy on 6 December, 1792, as First Class Volunteer on board the LIzard and was employed in the Channel and North Sea for nearly eighteen months. He next served on board the Sheerness on the coast of Africa, as A.B. and Master’s Mate, until transferred to the Hannibal in November 1798. In the course of the following year he was slightly wounded in the boats under Lieut George Frederick Stovin at the capture of a Spanish letter-of-marque off the isle of Pines. On his return from the West Indies, at the close of 1800, he joined La Déterminée and took part in the expedition to Egypt in 1801. He formed one of Lord Elgin’s suite when that nobleman received a diamond decoration from Sultan Selim III, and was employed afterwards on the coasts of Catalonia and Italy. When La Déterminée was shipwrecked off Jersey in March 1803, Revans was one of five persons who, with their Captain, remained on board until the last moment. He served next aboard the Dreadnought and Ville de Paris, in the latter of which he assisted in driving the French fleet into Brest, 22 August, 1805. After serving in various vessels, he was confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant in the Impétueux, in which ship he accompanied the expedition to the Walcheren in 1809 and, in the same year, witnessed the destruction of a French frigate off L’Orient. He was also employed in her boats in co-operation with the British army when occupying the lines of Torres Vedras; and afterwards proceeded to the Baltic.

In the summer of 1812 he left the Impétueux and between that period and November 1814 he was further employed as First Lieutenant in the Dublin, Venerable and Bulwark, on the Home and North American stations. In the Bulwark he was present at the capture of the towns of Castine, Hamden, and Bangor, and at the self-destruction of the U.S. corvette Adams. In November 1814 he was subpœnaed on a trial instituted by the Admiralty, and, being in consequence obliged to leave his ship, he lost the promotion which at the conclusion of hostilities was accorded to such as were recommended by Sir Alexander Cochrane, the Commander-in-Chief. In May, 1816, he became Flag-Lieutenant, in the Leander, to his old commander, Rear-Admiral Milne, under whom he fought in that capacity in the Impregnable at the battle of Algiers, and there was entrusted with the command of a Division of Gun Boats of the flotilla (London Gazette 1816). He returned with the Rear-Admiral to England in the Glasgow, and on his arrival was promoted, 16 September, 1816, to the rank of Commander.

Commander Revans married the only daughter of James Scott, of Kilishandria, co. Cavan, great-granddaughter of Captain Thomas Scott, who was killed in command of a troop of dragoons in the reign of William III, and sister of Major W. B. Scott, who fell in command of the 44th Regiment in the retreat from Cabul in January 1842.