China 1842 (R. Edwards, Mate, H.M.S. Larne) good very fine £600-800

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals formed by the late Alan Wolfe.

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Rowland Edwards was born in 1813, the third son of John Edwards, of Great Ness, Shrewsbury, a Magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for Shropshire. He entered the Navy in May 1827 and passed his examination in 1834. While Mate of H.M.S. Larne, Captain A. L. Kuper, he acquired great credit for his conduct in the boats under Lieutenant Watson in an impressive attack made upon 13 Chinese war junks, near Chuenpee, in January 1841 (London Gazette pp. 1221-22). His performance under fire earned him promotion to Lieutenant in May 1841, after which he joined the Wellesley, bearing the broad pennant of Sir J. G. Bremer. He returned to England in September 1844 and subsequently joined the Osprey in the East Indies, and a year later transferred to the Pilot on the same station. He returned to England in the Fox, from which he was paid off at Portsmouth in late 1848, and was never again actively employed. He was placed on the Reserve Half-Pay List in early 1854, and appears to have died shortly afterwards.