Orders, Decorations and Medals

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Copenhagen 1801, Centaur 26 Augt 1808 (Richard M. Teed, Volr.) neatly plugged at 6 o’clock over letter ‘H’ which is re-engraved, suspension re-fixed and carriage re-constituted, otherwise very fine £3500-4000

First sold by Debenham in April 1898 and by Spink in June 1989, when it was offered with a single clasp for Copenhagen.

On the 26th of August Centaur, in conjunction with the Implacable, captured the Russian 74-gun ship Sewolod in sight of the whole Russian fleet near Rogerswick. During a spirited attempt by the Russians to retake and row the Sewolod back into port, Sir S. Hood laid her on board and lashed her bowspit to the mizzen rigging of the Centaur under a heavy fire of musketry. The bow of the enemy grazed the muzzles of Centaur's guns, which at the same moment were discharged, and the raking broadside tore her to pieces. The Russians made several attempts to board, but were repelled by the fire of the marines and the stern chase guns of the Centaur, and after a hot action of half an hour the Sewolod again struck her colours. In this furious conflict the Centaur lost 3 killed and 27 wounded, and the enemy 180 killed and wounded. None of Centaur’s wounded lived to claim a medal for this action, of which approximately 42 clasps were issued.

Richard Manston Teed was born in about 1778 and entered the Navy in March 1801 as First-Class Volunteer aboard the Defiance, in which ship he was present at Copenhagen, 1801. He served in the boats of Penelope at the rescue of the crew of Atalanta, ashore on the French coast under batteries; at the destruction of a convoy near Cape Prior, 1807; and in Centaur, 1808-09, in the Baltic. He was Lieutenant commanding Swinger on the coast of Africa during the Ashantee war, and commanded a division of seamen and marines at the defence of Cape Coast Castle, for which services he was named in the gazetted despatches in 1824. He became a Retired Commander in 1848 and was placed on the out-pension list of Greenwich Hospital in September 1858. He died aged 82 or 83 in 1870.