Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Algiers (W. B. Stocker, Midshipman) very fine £1200-1400

Walter Broad Stocker was born on 2 August 1795, and entered the Royal Navy on 4 November 1809, as a First Class Volunteer. In his first ship, the Medusa 32, under Captain Hon. Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie, he cruized with activity in the Bay of Biscay, and frequently landed for the purpose of co-operating with the patriots on the north coast of Spain. He was also for some time employed in blockading Cherbourg. Towards the close of 1813 he removed to the Venerable 74, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Philip Durham in the West Indies, where, in August 1815, he was present at the reduction of Guadaloupe when the last French tri-color was struck. Returning home in the Spring of 1816, he fought as Admiralty-Midshipman of the Prometheus sloop, under Captain William Dashwood, at the battle of Algiers, as a result of which he was promoted Lieutenant on 16 September 1816. From January 1822 until advanced to Commander in January 1847, he served in the Coast Guard.