Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

China 1857-60, no clasp (Ag. Lieut. T. M. Philbrick, H.M.S. Auckland I.N.) officially impressed naming, very fine £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late Alan Wolfe.

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Thomas M. Philbrick was Acting Lieutenant of Auckland during the campaign in China and was present at the destruction of five heavily-armed junks at Lantao, and of a battery mounting thirty guns, in February 1857. The Auckland soon after engaged a fleet of eighty Mandarin junks, at Second Bar Creek in the Canton River, which came down in line of battle to attack her, and, after a smart action, she sank many of them and caused the remainder to retreat. The Auckland also assisted in the capture of eight Chinese vessels and seventy-two prisoners, and took and burnt a piratical junk at Chung-Chow Island. On 1 April 1857, Lieutenant Philbrick was in command of the second cutter and gig at the capture of a Mandarin junk in the Bay of Toong Chung. For these services he received the China medal without clasp.