Orders, Decorations and Medals

China 1842 (C. Frederick, Commander, H.M.S. Apollo) fitted with a contemporary silver bar suspension, very fine

Captain Charles Frederick entered the Royal Navy aboard the Temeraire in December 1812, subsequently receiving further appointments aboard the Aigle, Scamander and Forth, between 1812 and 1817, and gaining promotion to Midshipman and Master’s Mate. Whilst aboard the Aigle, he witnessed the destruction and capture of a convoy at Port Maurizio, and the fall of Genoa. He was promoted to Lieutenant in April 1818, and whilst aboard the Alacrity in 1829, he gallantly boarded a piratical mistico, receiving a severe gun shot wound in the head. For this latter service he was promoted to Commander.

In 1841 he was appointed to the command of the Apollo, and, in consideration of his conduct at the capture of Ching-Kiang-Foo and in the Yang-tse-Kiang river, he gained promotion to Captain. There followed several more commands and, whilst on the Pacific station he twice, in the Amphritite in 1852-3, entered the Polar Sea for the relief of discovery ships. In 1858, he took up the position of Senior Officer at Grey Town and Vera Cruz, in consequence of the disturbed state of Central America and Mexico. He returned to England in June 1859, and was soon afterwards appointed a Lord of the Admiralty, and to Vice-Admiral in October 1867.