Naval General Service Medal to Pte. Ellis, Royal Marines
A good Naval General Service Medal awarded to Private T. Ellis, Royal Marines, who saw much active service afloat in the suppression of the Slave Trade before participating - as a member of the landing parties - in the abortive and mis-managed siege of Petropavlovsk during the Crimean War
Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria officially named to: Thomas Ellis.
Five men of this name upon the published roll, three of whom with entitlement to single-clasp medals; of those three two are noted as Private, Royal Marines although this is the only 'Syria' clasp amongst them.
Thomas Ellis was born on 20 August 1811, joining the Royal Marines in 1835 at the age of 24; interestingly his attestation papers note his place of birth as Portugal, where his father was serving with the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot. Posted to the 84-gun H.M.S. Asia in March 1836, he was still on her books four years later when she was deployed for the Syria campaign against Mehemet Ali in the Eastern Mediterranean (Medal and Clasp).
Upon Asia's return to England, Ellis was next embarked upon another 84-gun vessel, H.M.S. Formidable - which had the misfortune to run badly aground off Barcelona in November 1842. Ellis is next noted serving, briefly, aboard the 28-gun frigate Crocodile, before removing on 29 December 1847 to the 10-gun brig sloop H.M.S. Sealark for active service with the Africa Squadron.
Suppression of the Slave Trade
Sealark formed part of a significant squadron of smaller Royal Navy warships tasked with putting a final end to the West African slave-trade; under the command of Commander William Backhouse Moneypenny she personally captured or shared in the capture of a number of slavers. The campaign was conducted with much vigour and despite the 'pestilential' nature of the climate British activities were not restricted to actions afloat: indeed in February 1849 Commodore Sir Charles Hotham landed a force of 300 seamen and marines from his ships, including Sealark, to attack and destroy the slavers' 'factories' and release any prisoners they found. The attack was a complete success with no casualties sustained on the British side.
Pacific Service at Petropavlovsk
Disembarking from Sealark in May 1850, Ellis is next noted as joining the 58-gun frigate H.M.S. President on 14 August 1853; she was an exact copy of U.S.S. President, captured by H.M.S Endymion in January 1815. The new President was assigned as flagship for Rear-Admiral David Powell Price, Commander-in-Chief Pacific and head of a small squadron tasked with combating and overcoming Russian naval interests in that ocean during the Crimean War. Price was, unfortunately, hampered by poor military intelligence and vague instructions from his superiors as to how he should proceed - the decision was therefore taken to assault and capture the main Russian naval base at Petropavlovsk.
Working in conjunction with an equally small squadron of French warships and after a recconnaisance of the harbour by the steam sloop H.M.S. Virago, it was determined the best course of action was an artillery bombardment and landing (by marines and sailors in the ships' boats) to attack the defences and seize the town. Sadly - and in an incident which has never been conslusively explained - Admiral Price then shot himself in his cabin aboard President, dying some five hours later from his wound. One can only imagine Ellis being caught up in the shock when this terrible incident unfolded.
Nevertheless after some delay the attacks went ahead and eventually comprised some 700 men - including 100 members of the Royal Marines, of which Ellis's record notes he was one with the 'Remarks' column stating: 'On Shore at Petropavlovsk'. The attacking force, divided into four columns, initially met with much success in driving the Russians out of the town and spiking their artillery pieces - however, the commander of the French portion of the assault encountered unexpectedly difficult terrain when attempting to seize a vital hill; whilst his forces halted, the British continued but by this point Russian forces had had time to reoganise. Launching a fierce counterattack, the outnumbered marines (with all their officers killed or wounded) were forced to retreat back to the boats: this retreat led to a rout, which included the embarrassing loss of their Queen's Colour - later recovered, washed up on the beach, by the Russians. Private Ellis was lucky to survive such a confusing and deadly encounter.
After this disaster and the death of their commander, the Allied fleet withdrew Vancouver Island before returning to Petropavlovsk in the spring of 1855 to find their foe had withdrawn further inland. Ellis, meanwhile, was transferred to the 46-gun H.M.S. Amphitrite in August 1855 for the journey home; his papers note that, after 21 years, two months and one day of service, Private Thomas Ellis was discharged at his own request with a character assessed as 'Very Good' and being in possession of no less than four good-conduct badges.
Product Code: EM3972
