Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Guadaloupe (John Archley.) very fine £800-£1,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Naval General Service Medals 1793-1840.

View
Collection

Provenance: Sotheby, July 1982; Dix Noonan Webb, April 2004.

John Archley is confirmed on the roll as a Boy aboard H.M.S. Rosamund at the capture of the island of Guadaloupe on 5 February 1810. He was born in London circa 1792 and first mustered aboard Rosamund as a Boy 3rd Class, aged 15. He served aboard Rosamund from this date until paid off on 5 January 1815, during which time she captured the French 16-gun ship Le Papillon off Guadaloupe on 19 December 1809, and took part in the operations for the capture of the island in January and February 1810. On 10 November 1815, he joined H.M.S. Tagus having changed his name (no explanation given) to John Oakley. He was discharged to shore on 27 January 1819, but volunteered for service again and served aboard Nautilus and Sybille, as Sail Maker’s Crew and later Sail Maker, until his final discharge on 30 June 1823. He was admitted to Greenwich Hospital on 5 June 1851, as ‘Archley and Oakley’, a widower aged 60. Sold with copied musters and Greenwich Hospital statement of service.