Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Paymaster-in-Chief G. M. Blyth, Royal Navy

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol, unnamed as issued; Baltic 1854-55, unnamed as issued; Ashantee 1873-74, no clasp (G. M. Blyth. Paymr. R.N. H.M.S. Himalaya. 73-74.); Turkish Crimea 1855, British issue, unnamed, light contact marks, otherwise generally good very fine (4) £500-£700

George Morris Blyth was born at Chatham Kent in 1832 and entered the Royal Navy in 1849. He very briefly served as a ‘Clerk’ on H.M.S. Victory, and then on H.M.S. Firebrand from 9 October 1849 until 6 October 1852. He was serving as a ‘Passed Clerk’ aboard H.M.S. Britannia during the Crimea War when the ship took part in the bombardment of Sebastopol on 17 October 1854. In August 1854 even before the campaign got underway, cholera - which was to kill more men in the Crimea than enemy action - ravaged the fleet, with Britannia, Trafalgar, Albion and Furious experiencing the highest mortality rates, Britannia losing 112 men to the disease in just three days. On 14 November 1854 Britannia was driven ashore by a great storm on to the Russian Coast.

He returned to H.M.S. Victory from 14 March until 20 March 1855, when he is shown as Assistant Paymaster on board H.M.S. Hawke and served in her until 27 March 1856. H.M.S. Hawke, under the command of Captain Erasmus Ommanney, was present in the Baltic during the bombardment of Sveaborg. Although Hawke was not directly involved in the bombardment, the gunboats attached to the fleet did take part, among which was H.M.S. Biter, tender to H.M.S. Hawke. On 10 August 1855 H.M.S. Hawke and the 8-gun H.M.S. Desperate were involved in action with some batteries and gunboats near the mouth of the Dwina, and on the 14 Hawke and H.M.S. Conflict landed parties ashore, destroyed several vessels, and repulsed a body of troops near Dome Ness, at the mouth of the Gulf of Riga.

He next served in H.M.S. Osprey and H.M.S. Fisgard as Acting Paymaster-in-Charge for four years until March 1860. He saw service in a number of H.M. Ships until joining H.M.S. Himalaya on 1 June 1872, serving as Paymaster until May 1874. Himalaya was present during the Ashantee War 1873-74, where she lay off the Gold Coast along with H.M. Ships Tamar and Victor Emanuel as hospital ships to accommodate the casualties and diseases inflicted by the conflict. He next served in H.M.S. Royal Adelaide from 14 May 1874 before joining H.M.S. Ganges on 17 July 1874 until 21 July 1877. He served in a number of H.M. Ships until he joined H.M.S. Agamemnon on 16 September 1884 to 2 August 1886, as Fleet Paymaster, and Retired as Paymaster-in-Chief on 3 September 1886. George Blyth died in 1911 aged 76, and was buried at Caistor, Norfolk.