Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Matthew Boulton’s Medal for Trafalgar 1805, white metal, the reverse field contemporarily engraved ‘J. Durman Marine H.M.S Spartiate’, unmounted, good fine £400-£500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The James Fox Collection of Naval Awards.

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James Durman, Private, Royal Marines, served in H.M.S. Spartiate during the major fleet action off Cape Trafalgar between the British fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson and the Franco-Spanish fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral P. C. de Villeneuve, 21 October 1805. At Trafalgar the Spartiate was in the weather column and ‘she fought under Sir Francis Laforey... her losses amounting to five killed and twenty wounded... The Minotaur and Spartiate... exchanged broadsides with several of the combined fleet. They managed to cut off the Spanish 84-gun ship Neptune, of which they contrived to get alongside, and which, after a fight of over an hour, surrendered. The Spartiate had her foretopsail yard shot away, and her masts, yards, and rigging in general were a good deal damaged.’ (The Trafalgar Roll, The Officers, The Men, The Ships, by Colonel R.H. Mackenzie refers).

Durman lived to claim, and received, the Naval General Service Medal 1793-1840 with clasp Trafalgar.