Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (Robert Jenner, Mate.) good very fine £800-£1,000

Provenance: Dix Noonan Webb, July 2001, when sold with silver St Jean D’Acre medal.

Robert Jenner was born in Chiselhurst, Kent on 13 June 1813. He was the third son of the Right Hon. Sir Herbert Jenner Fust, D.C.L., Dean of the Arches, and Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and Elizabeth Lacelles. His grandfather was Lieutenant-General Francis Lascelles. He entered the Navy in June 1826 shortly after his 13th birthday, passed his examination in 1832, and obtained his first commission in October 1840. He was present during the operations off the coast of Syria on board the Edinburgh. He was promoted to Lieutenant in October 1840, to Commander in January 1847, and retired as Captain in July 1864.

He served for over 20 years in a variety of locations; the Baltic, the Mediterranean, India, the West Indies, North and South America, Canada and the Cape. Within his service papers in ADM 9 there is reference to the fact that he commanded an outpost at Montego Bay in 1829 during a  Slave revolt. One notable event in his career is that while in command of Conflict, Jenner escorted General Rosas, the Argentinian Dictator, and his family to England where he sought refuge. The journey was long and not without excitement. The ship's starboard boiler exploded en route killing four men and injuring another.

He married Selina Jameson in November 1843 and they had one daughter, Constance. Robert Jenner died at Pau in the French Pyrenees in May 1873. The cause of his death was deemed to be accidental, however it is possible that alcohol played a part. He served alongside Montagu Burrows on both the Edinburgh and the Excellent and Burrows, who later became an Oxford Scholar and one of the earliest to lecture on naval history, has several references to Jenner is his autobiography. He is named in the book but in an early paragraph referring to his drinking habits, Burrows simply refers to him as J_____.

“J_____ was Gunnery Lieutenant, a gentleman from head to foot,  very handsome, and an excellent officer; but even he had formed the habit of drinking freely, though he was never drunk. He was our friend (though not at all one of our set) throughout the whole Commission: I served under him as lieutenant on board the Excellent many years afterwards, and succeeded him as Gunnery Officer of the Excellent. Yet his habitual indulgence overcame him at last, and he died of it”

When Jenner died in 1873 he left an estate of 600 pounds, and when his wife died in 1901 her estate was 10,000 pounds  His only daughter Constance remained single and had a comfortable life. In the 1911 census she is shown to be living off private means with 2 servants. She died the following year with an estate valued at over 24,000 pounds.

The rating of Mate is not that common on the N.G.S. with only 143 appearing on the roll, predominantly with the later clasps. This contrasts with about 10 times as many medals named to Midshipmen. Passed midshipmen awaiting promotion often elected to become master's mates. Though formally the rating did not lead to promotion to lieutenant, master's mates were paid more than any other rating and were the only ratings allowed to command any sort of vessel. A midshipman who became master's mate earned an increase in pay from 1/13/6 to 3/16/- per month, but initially reduced his chances at a commission. Over time,  however, an appointment of master's mate became considered a  normal part of the path to a commission; the situation caused some confusion during the latter part of the 18th century, when two parallel roles - master's mates trying to become masters, and former midshipmen working toward a commission - held the same title and responsibilities aboard ship. By the first years of the nineteenth century, the prefix ‘master’s’ was dropped for passed midshipman, to distinguish them from master's mates in the navigation branch.