Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 3 clasps, 28 June Boat Service 1810, Lissa, Pelagosa 29 Novr. 1811 (Chas. Friend, Master’s Mate) with a good length of original ribbon, some light marks, otherwise nearly extremely fine £5000-6000

26 clasps issued for ‘28 June Boat Service 1810’; 132 for ‘Lissa’; and 67 for ‘Pelagosa 29 Novr. 1811’. Six medals issued with this three-clasp combination.

Charles Friend was born at Ramsgate on 16 September 1793. He entered the Royal Navy on 2 December 1805, as First Class Volunteer on board the Camel store ship, from which, after visiting Gibraltar and the Rio de la Plata, he was transferred to as Midshipman, in November 1807, to the Grampus 50, then at the Cape of Good Hope. In the boats of the Active, of 46 guns, Captain James Alexander Gordon, whom he joined on 2 July 1809, he contributed to the capture, on 29 June 1810, of a convoy in the harbour of Grao. He next, on 12 February 1811, assisted in bringing out another from Ortona, although encountered by the most fearful obstacles; and, on 27 July in the same year, he was officially reported in the highest terms for his instrumentality, as Master’s Mate, in capturing and destroying 28 sail of merchantmen, defended, in a creek off the island of Ragooniza, by 3 gun-vessels and a body of 300 troops.

On 3 March 1811, he was further present in the memorable action off Lissa, when a British squadron, carrying in the whole 156 guns and 879 men, completely routed, after a conflict of six hours, and a loss to the Active of 4 killed and 24 wounded, a Franco-Venetian armament, whose force amounted to 284 guns and 2,655 men; and, on 29 November ensuing, he shared in a hard-fought combat of an hour and a half, which, in rendering the Active captor of the Pomone, of 44 guns and 332 men, 50 of whom were killed and wounded, occasioned her a loss of 8 killed and 27 wounded, including Captain Gordon, who lost a leg.

As a reward for his conduct off Lissa, Charles Friend, on his passing certificate reaching the Admiralty, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant by commission dated 12 June 1812. He was employed, from the following October until July 1814, in the Eclipse 18, in the West Indies, and from 21 April until 9 December 1815, in the Hardy 14, in the Channel. He was advanced to the rank of Commander 28 July 1851. For several years he held the appointment of Government Agent for Emigration at Cork.