Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Knight’s breast badge of the Order of St Ferdinand and of Merit awarded to Captain Sir Francis Le Hunt, Royal Navy

Italy, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Order of St Ferdinand and of Merit, Knight’s breast badge, gold and enamels, circa 1814, original ribbon, nearly extremely fine and a very rare piece of insignia £3,000-£4,000

Bonhams, April 2014, from a family source with note (no longer present) stating presented to Captain Francis Le Hunte, Royal Navy.

The Order of St. Ferdinand and of Merit was instituted by His Majesty Ferdinand the Fourth on 1 April 1800, the first recipient being Vice-Admiral Horation Nelson, K.B., Duke of Bronte. At first it consisted only of two Classes, Grand Crosses and Commanders but, on 25 July 1810, His Majesty added to it, Knights, as a third Class, the lesser cross to be worn suspended from the button-hole of the cape of the coat, with a riband, one third part narrower in breadth than that of the Commanders. Carlisle’s Foreign Orders of Knighthood, of 1839, lists all the British recipients - 9 of the Grand Cross, including Nelson, Exmouth and Wellington; 18 Commanders, and 14 Knights.

Francis Le Hunte, of Artramont, County Wexford, entered the Royal Naval Academy on 1 November 1800, and, after a course of more than four years’ study at that institution, embarked, 18 April 1805, as a Volunteer, on board the Nemesis 28, Captain Philip Somerville, stationed in the Channel, where, from September 1806 to April 1808, he cruised as Master’s Mate in the Narcissus 32, Captain Charles Malcolm. The next nine months were employed by this officer in the Pallas 32, Captain George Erasmus Seymour, on the coast of Spain.

In July 1811, exactly two years after he had passed his examination, he received, with the rank of Acting-Lieutenant, an appointment to the Sicilian flotilla at Messina. His confirmation took place 26 September following, and, on 15 February 1813, we find him serving on shore in command of a party of seamen, and co-operating with the troops under Brigadier Hall (Captain Robert Hall, R.N., and a Brigadier in the Army of King Ferdinand, died 7 February 1818), in an attack upon a strong body of the enemy, consisting of a complete battalion, with two troops of cavalry and two pieces of artillery, located at Pietra Nera, on the Calabrlan coast. On that occasion he stormed and carried, in a very gallant style, several obstinately defended batteries, and by his exemplary conduct attracted as well the admiration of the Brigadier as the observation both of soldiers and sailors. The enemy at Pietra Nera had upwards of 150 men killed and wounded, and 163 taken prisoners. The loss to the British was very trifling (Vide Gazette 1813 p. 726).

He was afterwards sent with a division of gun-boats to guard the island of Ponza; and in March and April 1814, being attached to the expedition against Genoa and its dependencies, he particularly distinguished himself by his gallant and able conduct at the reduction of the enemy’s forts in the Gulf of Spezia (Vide Gazette 1814 p. 984).

During the short war of 1815, Commander Le Hunte, who had been advanced to that rank on 15 June in the preceding year, was selected to serve in the river Scheldt with a brigade of seamen under the orders of Captain Charles Napier. After the overthrow of Napoleon he assumed command, 20 June 1815, of the Erebus 16, and retained it, in the Downs, until 4 September following. He was advanced to Captain on the Retired List on 1 July 1851, and died at Atramont House in October 1859.