The Douglas-Morris Collection of Naval Medals

Egypt and Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, no clasp (A. Freckleton, Gunr. R.M.A. H.M.S. “Orion”) nearly extremely fine

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

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Arthur Freckleton was born in 1854 in the parish of St Johns, near Liverpool, Lancashire, and worked as a labourer prior to enlisting into the Royal Marines on 4 January 1876 when aged 22 years. Unknown to the Royal Marine authorities was that his real name was Thomas Williams and that he was a deserter from the Royal Artillery, where he had attested on 24 July 1875 and been given the Regimental No 3338. Whilst in the Royal Artillery he had been a far from perfect recruit, his name appearing on frequent occasions in the Regimental Defaulters Book. On entering the Royal Marine Artillery he failed to change his ways, as on 15 January 1876, just 10 days after enlisting in the Corps, he was absent from Tattoo Drill, and on 23 and 24 January 1876 he was again charged with the same offence. The situation was to worsen as on 27 December 1875 he deserted; on recovery he was sentenced to 365 days in prison with hard labour. On his return to the Corps he continued his bad ways, being charged with Fraudulent Entitlement (January 1877), Fighting in the North Barracks (August 1877), Absent from Tattoo Drill (March 1878), Breaking out of Barracks (June 1878), Absent from Tattoo Drill (October 1878), Late back from Leave (December 1879), Late back from Leave (June 1880), Breaking Leave (August 1880), Returning from Leave Drunk (October 1881), and finally Improperly Dressed and creating a disturbance ashore (January 1881). He embarked aboard his first ship H.M.S. ORION in 1882 to serve in Egyptian waters, and earned entitlement to the Egypt medal without clasp and Khedive's Star. His inability to conform to discipline and good behaviour probably resulted in his dismissal from the Corps shortly after ORION returned to England.