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

The Naval General Service medal awarded to Lieutenant Buxton Layton, Royal Navy, Midshipman in the Nassau at the capture and destruction of the Danish 74-gun ship Prindts Christian Frederic in March 1808
Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Nassau 22 March 1808 (Buxton Layton, Midshipman.) extremely fine £6,000-£8,000

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

Sotheby 1895; Glendining’s, December 1951 and July 1955; J. B. Hayward, June 1975; Peter Dale Collection, July 2000.

Confirmed on the roll as a Midshipman aboard H.M.S. Nassau when, together with H.M.S. Stately, they jointly attacked and destroyed the Danish 74-gun ship Prindts Christian Frederic off Grenaa, Coast of Jutland, Denmark, on 22 March 1808. The Nassau suffered 2 men killed, and 16 men wounded, whilst the Stately lost 4 men killed, and 2 officers and 26 men wounded. The loss to the Danish, out of a crew of 576, amounted to 45 men killed and 88 wounded. 31 clasps were issued for ‘Nassau 22 March 1808’.

Buxton Layton entered the Navy on 27 May 1804, as First-class Volunteer on board the Ethalion frigate, Captains Charles Stuart and Joseph Spear, employed at first in the North Sea, and then in the West Indies, where, in March 1806, he became Midshipman of the Amelia 38, Captain William Champain. From the following August until December 1810, he appears to have been again stationed in the North Sea, as well as in the Baltic, on board the Nassau 64, Captain Robert Campbell, Edgar 74, Captain Stephen Poyntz, and Stately 64, Captain R. Campbell. While in the Nassau, which was for a long time employed in blockading the Texel, and formed part of the expedition to Copenhagen in August and September 1807, Layton (on the Nassau being extricated from a mass of ice in which she had been blocked up during the whole winter) assisted, on 22 March 1808, in company with the Stately 64, at the capture and destruction of the Danish 74-gun ship Prindts Christian Frederic on the coast of Zealand, after a running fight of great length and obstinacy in which the Nassau sustained a loss of 2 men killed and 16 wounded. In December 1810 he accompanied Captain Campbell into the Tremendous 74, and sailed for the Mediterranean, where he remained with that officer until May 1815, participating intermediately in a variety of important services. Layton then took up a commission dated 10 February 1815, and was shortly afterwards placed on half-pay.