The John Goddard Collection of Important Naval Medals and Nelson Letters

Commander Thomas Cull, R.N., who was Acting-Lieutenant in command of No 16 gun-boat at the defence of Tarifa, in various gallant attacks on enemy privateers, and in the valiant boat attack on the enemy’s privateers and batteries in the Mole of Malaga in April 1812; for which varied services he was officially mentioned and promoted to Lieutenant

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Malaga 29 April 1812 [17], St. Sebastian [291] (Thomas Cull, Lieut.) with original ribbon, good very fine £8000-10000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The John Goddard Collection of Important Naval Medals and Nelson Letters.

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Provenance: Spink, March 1995 (Ex Captain E. G. Hawkes Collection).

Malaga 29 April 1812 [17 issued] - 9 known, including examples in the National Maritime Museum; Royal Naval Museum; and the Patiala Collection (Sheesh Mahal Museum, India). Thomas Cull does not appear on the Admiralty Claimant’s list for this clasp but is shown on the Hailes roll as being present and entitled; the Navy List for 1852 further confirms his receipt of a medal with 2 clasps.

St. Sebastian [291 issued] - including 4 officers and 3 men of the Lyra.

Thomas Cull was born in 1793, at Poole, co. Dorset. He entered the Navy on 19 September 1803, as First Class Volunteer on board the Repulse 74, Captain Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge. In that ship, in which he served for more than seven years on the Home and Mediterranean stations, he was present in Sir Robert Calder’s action with the combined fleets of France and Spain on 22 July 1805; at the capture of the Marengo, of 80 guns, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule, 13 March 1806; at the taking also of Le President 44, by a squadron under Sir Thomas Louis, 27 September 1806; at the passage of the Dardanelles in February 1807; and in the expedition to the Walcheren in August 1809. About the latter date he accidentally fell from the fore topmast cross-trees on the lee gangway, and had the misfortune to break two of his ribs. Having passed his examination, 13 August 1810, Mr. Cull, in May 1811, when at Gibraltar on his passage home in the Montagu 74, Captain John Halliday, volunteered to join the flotilla service on that and the Cadiz stations. In July following he assumed, with the rank of Acting-Lieutenant, the command of No. 16 gun-boat, and, for his varied services, including his conduct at the defence of Tarifa and his gallantry in several vigourous attacks on the enemy’s privateers and other armed vessels, on one of which occasions, in an attempt to cut out a privateer at St Lucar, he was wounded, was presented by the Admiralty with a commission dated 21 March 1812.

On the night of 29 April 1812, we find Mr. Cull, with his gun-vessel, warmly assisting Captain Thomas Ussher in a valiant boat attack upon the enemy’s privateers and batteries in the Mole of Malaga; an enterprise which, although partially successful, terminated in a loss to the British, out of 149 officers and men, of 15 killed and 53 wounded. He invalided home in the ensuing July, and was next appointed, 29 January 1813, to the Lyra 10, Captains Robert Bloye and Dowell O’Reilly. In the course of that and the following year, be actively co-operated with the patriots on the north coast of Spain, where he served at the sieges of Guetaria, Castro, and San Sebastian, and was also employed in the Rivers Adour and Gironde. The Lyra was paid off in August 1815, from which period until October 1847, Lieutenant Cull held no appointment. He was then nominated an Agent in the Contract Mail Steam Service; after which he was employed, from 12 June 1849 until his promotion to the rank of Commander, 16 February 1852, in the Ordinary at Devonport, with his name on the books of the Agincourt 72, and St George 120.

Commander Cull was latterly a Magistrate for the borough of Totness, in Devonshire. He married, first, in 1815, Miss Jemima Colson, of Exeter, by whom he had issue one daughter; and, secondly, in 1820, Miss Mary Ann Spear, of Monkton, co. Dorset. In 1843 he again became a widower. Commander Thomas Cull died at Poole, Dorset, in 1886, in his 94th year.