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

The 4-clasp Naval General Service medal awarded to Admiral Barrington Reynolds, G.C.B., Royal Navy, who entered the Navy at the age of 9 in the Druid with his father Captain R. C. Reynolds, who he followed into the Amazon and witnessed the action, in company with Sir Edward Pellew in the Indefatigable, with the French 74 Droits de L’Homme in January 1797, being briefly taken prisoner; he served in the boats of the squadron at the cutting out of the Guepe in August 1800 being promoted to Lieutenant. Reynolds was afterwards distinguished at the capture of Java, and commanded the Ganges in the Syria operations in 1840

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 4 clasps, Amazon 13 Jany 1797, 29 Aug Boat Service 1800, Java, Syria (B. Reynolds, Capt. R.N.) some light hairlines, otherwise nearly extremely fine £24,000-£28,000

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

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Confirmed on the rolls as Midshipman aboard H.M.S. Amazon for her action with the French 74 Droits de L’Homme on 13 January 1797; in the same rank aboard H.M.S. Impetueux and the boat service action on 29 August 1800; as Commander of H.M.S. Hesper at the capture of Java; and as Captain of H.M.S. Ganges at Syria.

Only 6 clasps issued for ‘Amazon 13 Jany 1797’ and 25 for ‘29 Aug Boat Service 1800’.

The Amazon clasp is not held by either the National Maritime Museum or the Royal Naval Museum. Reynolds’ service at Java is not to be overlooked. The naval operations were carried out by Captain Sayer, R.N. (Army Gold Medal for Java - Patiala Collection, Sheesh Mahal Museum, India) assisted by Captains Festing (who got a Military G.S. medal for Java), Stopford (N.G.S. 6 clasps in the National Maritime Museum), Maunsell (did not live to claim) and Reynolds. These officers manned the batteries consisting of twenty 18-pounders, with 500 seamen under their direction, which silenced the enemy’s heavy guns at the assault of Meester Cornelis which led to the surrender of the island. Reynolds’ Java clasp is therefore the highest rank available on a Naval General Service medal.

Barrington Reynolds was born in 1786 at Penair, near Truro, the second son of Rear Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, who died in 1811. He entered the navy in in 1795, on board the Druid, with his father, whom he followed into the Amazon.

On 13 December 1797, the Amazon 32, Captain R. C. Reynolds, and the Indefatigable 44, Captain Sir Edward Pellew, about fifty leagues south west of Ushant, discovered a large ship steering towards the coast of France. This was the Droits de l’Homme 74, Commodore J. La Crosse, which had formed one of the French fleet in the expedition to Ireland, and after the failure at Bantry Bay, was now returning home, with about seven hundred trroops on board. The weather was thick and hazy, and the wind blew hard from the westward. Soon after the French ship had been sighted and found to be an enemy, a squall carried away her fore and main top-masts, and the sea ran so high that she was unable to open her lower deck ports. Shortly before 6 p.m. the Indefatigable brought the Droits de l’Homme to action, and in about an hour after, the Amazon came up and took part in the engagement; the enemy making several ineffectual attempts to board, and keeping up an active fire of cannon and musketry. In a little time the British frigates shot ahead, the Amazon to reduce her sail, and the Indefatigable to repair the damage to her rigging.

About half-past eight, the frigates renewed the action, attacking their opponent first on the bow, and then on the quarter, often within pistol shot. The contest lasted till twenty minutes past four a.m. when when the sudden appearance of the land, and breakers close ahead, caused all the ships to end an engagement which had lasted ten hours, and make efforts top haul off. The Indefatigable at once bore to the southwards, with four feet of water in her hold, all her masts much damaged, and her crew almost worn out with fatigue. The Droits de l’Homme in attempting to tack, lost her fore mast and bowsprit, and struck on a sand bank in Audierne Bay. The main mast went by the board, and she then fell on her broadside, with a tremendous surf beating over her. The Amazon seeing the danger, also wore, with three feet of water in her hold, but with her mizzen top-mast shot away, and her masts and rigging almost cut to pieces, was unable to haul off, and went on shore about the same time. Her crew with the exception of six, who were drowned, saved themselves on rafts, but on landing were all made prisoners by a body of French soldiers. In the action three men were killed and fifteen wounded. Through the stormy state of the weather the crew of the Droits de l’Homme spent four nights on the wreck without succour, the waves constantly breaking over them, till more than half of them were drowned, or perished from cold and hunger. Her crew with the soldiers ammounted to one thousand three hundred and fifty men, two hundred and fifty of whom were killed and wounded in the engagement with the British frigates.

On regaining his liberty in January 1798, Barrington Reynolds again served with his father in the Pomone, and was present in a stiff action which ended in the capture of Le Cheri French privateer of 26 guns and 230 men. He shortly afterwards moved to the Indefatigable, with Sir Edward Pellew, and on 8 August 1798 contributed to the capture of La Vaillante corvette of 20 guns and 175 men. Following Pellew into the Impetueux 74, he sailed in that ship with a squadron sent in June 1800, to co-operate with the French royalists and Chouans in Quiberon Bay and the Morbihan. He assisted, 4 June 1800, while detached in a boat, in silencing the forts at the south west end of Quiberon, where several vessels were brought off and some scuttled. On 6 August he was employed in the boats under Lieutenant John Pilfold, at the capture, in the Morbihan, of two brigs, two sloops, two gun-vessels, and about 100 Frenchmen, and the destruction of L’Insolente 16-gun brig, some smaller vessels, a fort and a magazine. On the night of 29 August 1800, he fought in the boats of a squadron, 20 in number, commanded by Lieutenant Henry Burke, at the cutting out, close to the batteries in Vigo Bay, of La Guêpe privateer of 18 guns and 161 men, which vessel was boarded and carried in fifteen minutes. For his services on this occasion he was made Lieutenant into the Courageux 74.

In June 1802 he was appointed to the Hussar 28, and from August 1803 to September 1809 was in the Niobe 40, for the greater part with Captain John Wentworth Loring on the coast of France. On the night of 28 March 1806 he skilfully gained full possession, whilst in command of two boats dropped from the Niobe, of the French corvette La Néarque of 16 guns and 97 men, the rearmost of a French squadron comprising of a further three frigates.

He was afterwards in the Russell 74, in the East Indies, and in December 1809 was appointed acting Commander of the Arrogant hulk. In February 1811 he was appointed to the Hesper 18, part of the force employed in the expedition against Java, where he assisted at the bombardment and storming of Fort Cornelis and served on shore with a party of seamen throughout all the operations. After the reduction of the town of Cheribon, Reynolds was appointed temporary commander of that place, and on the final subjugation of the island of Java he was, in acknowledgement of his conduct, appointed Acting Captain of the Sir Francis Drake frigate. On 22 January 1812, he was promoted Captain, independently, by the Admiralty, probably as a mark of their high appreciation of the services of his father, who had perished in the St George 98, on his passage home from the Baltic, on 24 December 1811. In August 1812 he was removed by Sir Samuel Hood into the Bucephalus 32, which he took to England and paid off in August 1813. Shortly after the Peace he was offered the command of a frigate, which he declined on the ground of ill-health.

Nominated a C.B. in July 1838, Reynolds did not again go afloat until October 1838 when he commissioned the Ganges 80, for service in the Mediterranean, and commanded her on the coast of Syria during the operations of 1840. In January 1848 he was made Rear Admiral and was shortly afterwards appointed commander-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope and on the West Coast of Africa with instructions to clamp down on the illegal slave traders who operated from West Africa. He was so successful that he was sent to cruise off the Brazilian coast for the same role. Over the next three years, Barrington and his squadron captured dozens of slave ships and, despite loud protests from the Brazilian government, raided harbours along the coast, burning the empty slave ships which sheltered in them. In response to the protests, he wrote to the Admiralty that “nothing can be done with the Brazilian government on this matter except by compulsion”. His actions have been credited with destroying the Brazilian slave trade completely by 1851. Relinquishing his command in 1852, Reynolds shortly afterwards the special thanks of the government for his activity and zeal in suppressing the slave trade.
He was promoted to Vice Admiral in July 1855, nominated a K.C.B. in February 1856, and from May 1857 to October 1860 he was commander-in-chief at Devonport. In November 1860 he was promoted to the rank of Admiral, and on 28 June 1861 was made a G.C.B.. Admiral Barrington Reynolds died at his home, Penair, near Truro, on 3 August 1861.