China 1842 (Hon. Mark Kerr, Lieut., H.M.S. Wellesley) contact marks, otherwise very fine £500-600

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval and Indian Marine Medals from the Collection of John Tamplin.

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Mark Kerr was born in Portman Square on 3 April 1814. He was the second son of Lord Mark Robert Kerr, who became a Vice-Admiral of the White. He was baptized on 21 April 1814 at St Marylebone. Mark Kerr’s mother was Charlotte, third daughter of Randall, 6th Earl of Antrim. This nobleman, having no male issue, obtained a patent with remainder to his daughters primogeniturely and their male issue, and on his death in 1791 his eldest daughter, Ann Catherine, succeeded him as Countess of Antrim; and on her death in 1834 she was succeeded by her sister, Charlotte, mother of Mark Kerr. She died in 1835 and was succeeded by her son Hugh Seymour Kerr; he died without male issue on 19 July 1855, and was succeeded by Mark Kerr as the 5th Earl of Antrim and Viscout Dunluce, in the peerage of Ireland. Kerr took by Royal License the name of McDonnell only on 8 November 1855.

The Honourable Mark Kerr followed his father, and joined the Royal Navy. He passed his examination in 1834, and obtained his first commission as a Lieutenant, R.N., on 10 October 1837. On 29 April 1838 he was appointed to H.M.S. Wellesley, 72, in the East Indies, in which ship he took part in the China war of 1840-42. In February 1842 he was appointed to the Formidable, 84, in the Mediterranean; in April 1844 to the Queen, 110, Flag-ship at Portsmouth; and in August 1845 to the President, 50, Flag-ship at Portsmouth and Cape of Good Hope.

Kerr was promoted Commander on 12 January 1846, when he went on half-pay. On 1 July 1864 he was allowed to assume the rank of Retired Captain without increase in half-pay. He married, on 27 April 1849, at Southill, Bedfordshire, Jane Emma Hannah, second daughter of Major Turner Macan (who died in 1835) of Carriff, County Armagh, by whom he had issue five sons and five daughters. Kerr was also a Deputy-Lieutenant for County Antrim.

Captain the Rt. Honble. Mark McDonnell, Earl of Antrim and Viscount Dunluce, D.L., R.N. Retd., died on 19 December 1869 at Glenarm Castle, the seat of the McDonnells of Antrim. He was 55. ‘At the death of his elder brother, Hugh Seymour, in 1855, he succeeded to the family title and estates, assumed the surname of McDonnell, and fixed his residence at Glenarm Castle, where he performed the duties of his county station in the most admirable way - just and upright as a magistrate, liberal as a landlord, and benevolent to the poor.’