Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Petty Officer Theophilus R. Leaman, Royal Navy

China 1857-60, no clasp, unnamed; Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., V.R., narrow suspension (Theophilus R. Leaman. Qr. Mr. H.M.S. Cambridge. 22 Yrs.) impressed naming, scarce variety with Years on edge, very fine (2) £600-£700

Provenance: L.S. & G.C., Douglas-Morris Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, February 1997. One of approximately 24 known of this variety. China medal since added to complete entitlement.

Theophilus Leaman was born in Newton, Devon, on 28 April 1840, and entered the service as a Boy 2nd Class aboard H.M.S. Impregnable on 23 August 1855. He was drafted to Raleigh on 24 October 1856 and sailed for Far Eastern waters but his vessel was holed on 20 May 1857, off Macao, and subsequently stranded on the beach of a nearby island. He was transferred to Tribune for operations during the 2nd China War and paid off from her in August 1860. Advanced to Able Seaman in July 1861, to Leading Seaman in January 1863 and to Petty Officer status (Coxswain of Cutter) in January 1865. Pensioned as a Quarter Master aboard Cambridge on 23 April 1878. Sold with copied record of service.