Orders, Decorations and Medals Including five Special Collections

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Martinique (T. Martin, Lieut.) extremely fine £1000-1200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval and Indian Marine Medals from the Collection of John Tamplin.

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Thomas Martin was born at Tamerton Foliot, Devon, on 11 December 1787, son of John Nickleson Martin, an officer in the Marine Forces. He entered the Royal Navy in March 1799 as a Midshipman aboard the Superb, 74, Captain John Sutton, then only 11 years old. After service in the Channel and the Mediterranean, he followed Captain Sutton, in March 1801, into the Ville de Paris, 110, Flag-ship of the Hon. William Cornwallis. In December 1801 he removed to the Imortalité, 36, commanded in the Channel by Captains Hon. Henry Hotham and Edward Owen. In the summer of 1805, having been latterly employed once more under Captain Sutton on the Home station in H.M.S. Mars, 74, and as Master’s Mate in the Revolutionnaire, 44, Captain Hon. H. Hotham, Martin was successively nominated Acting lieutenant of the Hibernia, 110, Captain William Bedford, and the Audacious, 74, Captains John Lawford and James Bissett.

Martin was confirmed as Lieutenant on 22 January 1806 and subsequently appointed as Senior Lieutenant of the Penelope, 36, Captains W. R. Broughton and John Dick, stationed for some time on the coast of North America and in the West Indies. In the latter place he served on shore with a party of seamen at the capture of Fort Trinite, prior to the surrender of Martinique in February 1809. Also whilst serving in Penelope he commanded its boats, in conjunction with those of the Pomone, at the rescue of the crew of the Atalante on shore under the batteries on the French coast, and also at the destruction of a convoy near Cape Prior in 1807.

On 3 December 1810, Martin was appointed Senior Lieutenant of the Wolverine, a brig under Captain C. J. Kerr, attached to the force in the Channel; and from 1811 to 1813, Senior Lieutenant of the Dragon, 74, and Tribune, 36, the Flag-ships of Sir Fraser Laforey, and of Grampus, 50, Captain F. A. Collier, in the West Indies. Martin was promoted Commander on 10 August 1813, and appointed in that rank to the Surinam, sloop, in which vessel he returned home in convoy and was paid off in the following October. He was lastly, from 3 June 1824 until January 1827, employed on the Jamaica station in command of the Jaseur, 18, where he was importantly and actively employed in the protection of British interests in the River Plate, and also in the Pacific during the war of independence, 1824-27.

Martin was promoted Captain on 2 August 1826, and, on reserved half-pay, became Rear-Admiral on 15 April 1854, Vice-Admiral on 9 June 1860, and Admiral on 9 February 1864. Martin married at Kensington on 5 August 1828, Ann, daughter of John Miles of London, and by her had issue five sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Thomas Hutchinson Mangles Martin, had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy during the Crimean war and died as an Admiral in December 1896, whilst his third son, John Nickleson Martin, was killed at Cawnpore in June 1857 as a Second Lieutenant in the Bengal Artillery. Admiral Thomas Martin died at Bitterne, Southampton, on 1 November 1868, aged 81.