Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas (Part I)

The 3-clasp Naval General Service medal awarded to Lieutenant Edward Grant, Royal Navy, who as Acting Lieutenant of the Cyane 22-gun frigate was present in January 1814 at the capture of the French 40-gun frigates Iphigénie and Alcmène off Madeira

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 3 clasps, Basque Roads, St Sebastian, Cyane 16 Jany. 1814 (Edward Grant, Lieut. R.N.) some light rubbing to rim suggesting that it may once have been in a mount, otherwise nearly very fine £14,000-£18,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas.

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Collection

Peter Dale Collection, July 2000.

Confirmed on the rolls as Midshipman in Gibraltar at Basque Roads, and of Andromache at St Sebastian. Acting Lieutenant of the Cyane on 16 January 1814. 7 clasps issued for ‘Cyane 16 Jany. 1814’, four of which are held by the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Naval Museum at Portsmouth, and the Honeyman Collection, Huntington Library, U.S.A. (two medals).

Edward Grant entered the Navy on 15 April 1807, as First-class Volunteer, on board the Gibraltar 80, Captains John Halliday, James Johnstone, Henry Lidgbird Ball, and Valentine Collard, in which ship he beheld, as Midshipman, the destruction of the French squadron in Basque Roads in April 1809. In June 1810 he removed to the Courageux 74, Captain William Butterfield, stationed off the coast of France, where in the following month, he again joined the Gibraltar, then commanded by Captain Robert Plampin. From April 1811 to October 1813 he served in the Andromache 38, Captain George Tobin, whom - after assisting at the siege of St. Sebastian - he escorted the French garrison to England, and on 23 October 1813 is believed to have contributed to the capture of La Trave, of 44 guns and 321 men; the frigate, although disabled in a previous action, did not surrender until she had sustained a close conflict of 15 minutes. On the following day, Grant was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Cyane 22, Captain Thomas Forrest, and it was whilst in this vessel that he was present at the capture, off Madeira in January 1814, of the French 40-gun frigates Iphigénie and Alcmène. Being then successively appointed Admiralty-Midshipman of the Newcastle 50, Captain Lord George Stuart, and later Tonnant 80, flag-ship of Sir Alexander Cochrane, he took part, under the latter officer, in the expedition against New Orleans. He was confirmed a Lieutenant on 29 March 1815 in the Regulus troop-ship, Captain Francis Truscott, but from the following November, when he returned to England and was paid off, was unemployed.