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Auction: 11010 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 3

A Rare ´Second China War´ C.B. Group of Four to Admiral Hon. K. Stewart, Royal Navy a) The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Military Division, Companion´s (C.B.) breast Badge, gold (Hallmarks for London date letter obscured in manufacture) and enamel, minor white enamel damage, centre slightly loose, with swivel-ring suspension and integral gold riband buckle b) Naval General Service 1793-1840, one clasp, Navarino (Hon. K. Stewart, Volr. 1st Class.) c) Baltic 1854-55, unnamed as issued d) China 1857-60, two clasps, Fatshan 1857, Canton 1857, unnamed as issued, suspension claw re-affixed on last, light contact marks throughout, otherwise generally good very fine (4) Estimate £ 3,500-4,500 Admiral The Honourable Keith Stewart, C.B., R.N., born 1814, the second son of the 8th Earl of Galloway; entered the Royal Navy as a Midshipman, 1827; served aboard H.M.S. Victory at Portsmouth in April of the same year, quickly seeing action as a Volunteer 1st Class in the Asia at Navarino, October 1827; returning to home waters in the course of 1830, he enjoyed several more seagoing appointments and was advanced to Lieutenant, June 1833; subsequently employed on the Lisbon Station, he transferred to the Cornwallis in early 1837 and served off North America and in the West Indies; in October 1838, in the rank of Commander, he was appointed Captain of the Ringdove, in which ship he was employed in the suppression of the slave trade in the West Indies and in protecting the fisheries in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence; advanced to Captain in July 1842, Stewart was appointed to the command of the Termagant on the eve of the Baltic operations of 1854-55, and in her won praise for his conduct at the attack on Bomersund (Letter from Sir Charles Napier, dated 11 August 1854, refers); later in the year he assumed command of the Nankin, winning the approbation of Rear-Admiral Sir M. Seymour for his ´active operations´ against pirates off China in 1856; between 1857-59, for his service during the Second China War in the same ship, Stewart was thrice gazetted for his good work, not least in the Canton operations; his other achievements included a successful action with Chinese war junks in the summer of 1857 and participation in a punitive expedition under General van Straubenzee ´to enact retribution for a Flag of Truce having been fired upon´; having been appointed a Commodore 2nd Class in March 1857, Stewart´s services in the China War were finally rewarded with a C.B; advanced to Rear-Admiral in May 1862, to Vice-Admiral in October 1867 and to full Admiral in July 1875, Stewart died in September 1879.

Sold for
£3,500