Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, 2 clasps, Relief of Lucknow, Lucknow (Stoker Peter Byrne. Shannon.) good very fine £1,000-£1,400

Peter Burns (alias Byrne) was born at Spike Island, County Cork, Ireland, on 1 June 1823. He entered the Royal Navy as Ordinary Seaman on 18 February 1845, and served aboard the 90-gun second-rate ship of the line H.M.S. Rodney until 9 March 1849. Advanced Able Seaman, he transferred to the Royal Yacht H.M.S. Victoria and Albert, and then served aboard H.M.S. Neptune and H.M.S. Furious, the latter in the rank of Stoker.

Present during the Crimean War (Medal and clasp, Sebastopol), he joined H.M.S. Shannon on 21 August 1856, and served throughout the Indian Mutiny detached from Shannon with Peel’s Naval Brigade, for which he was awarded the Indian Mutiny Medal with two clasps. Returning from service in the Indian Mutiny, Byrne served for a short period aboard H.M.S. Hannibal and was fortunate to transfer as Boatswain to the Coast Guard on 2 February 1859, just months before the Hannibal faced a significant smallpox epidemic aboard ship which led to the deaths of a number of crew and Italian soldiers under the command of Giuseppe Garibaldi. He subsequently served with the Coast Guard at Seasalter on the north coast of Kent.

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