The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals

Indian Mutiny 1857-58, no clasp (Jesse Ward, Capt. Fore Top. Pearl) edge bruise and contact wear, therefore nearly very fine

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals.

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Jesse Ward was born at Hampstead, Norfolk, on 19 December 1827. He joined the service as an A.B. aboard H.M.S. LONDON in December 1852, gaining entitlement to the Crimea medal with Sebastopol clasp, before being discharged from her in January 1856. He joined PEARL as a Leading Seaman the following March being immediately advanced to Captain of the Mast, and three months later to Captain of the Fore Top. On 12 September 1857 he was sent ashore with PEARL’s Naval Brigade and distinguished himself in the attack against Fort Belwar on 3 March 1858, appearing in Captain E. S. Sotheby’s despatch from Amorha Camp, dated 9 March 1858, in the following terms:

“The gunnery under the respective officers, with their captains of guns, elicited the admiration of all. In the skirmishes the Marines were most steady in their work, and it is incumbent on me especially to point out the gallant manner in which Lieutenant Grant R.N., assisted by Midshipman Lord Charles Scott, Mr Shearman, Engineer, and Jesse Ward, Captain of the Fore Top, captured a gun, shooting down the crew and turning it on the enemy, and John Goodfellow, Captain of the Fore Castle, who, after firing a shell, galloped up with his gun and took it.”

Jesse Ward had become a casualty at Belwar on 2 March 1858 suffering from a slight contusion of a shoulder by a spent round shot. On arrival home he was invalided to Haslar Hospital, 8 June 1859, suffering from rheumatism, but on discharge as fit for duty was drafted to VICTORY on 17 June but never reported aboard her and remains lost to our view from this time.