Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol (Wm. Mathews, H.M.S. “Cyclops”) contemporarily engraved naming, heavy contact marks and edge bruising, nearly very fine £120-160

William Matthews was born at Holywell, Flintshire, in 1828, and joined the Royal Navy for service in H.M.S. Horatio on 22 October 1852, giving his trade as ‘sea’. He joined H.M.S. Cyclops as a Stoker on 3 February 1854, and served with her in the Crimea, where he was present at the bombardment of Sebastopol. Returning to Sheerness, he was paid off on 15 September 1856.