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Auction: 22002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 174

(x) Four: Commander J. Townsend, Royal Navy

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (John Townend, Mate.); Crimea 1854-56, 1 clasp, Sebastopol, unnamed as issued to Royal Navy; St Jean d'Acre 1840, silver issue, fitted with lunettes and silver band around rim; Turkish Crimea 1855, Sardinian die, all fitted with later ornate suspensions, riband buckles and top riband bars, obverse lunette cracked on third, very fine (4)

John Townsend was born on Quebec Street, London on 10 March 1815 and was educated at Dr Burney's School, Greenwich. He entered the Royal Navy on 17 July 1829 as a Volunteer 1st Class. He served as a Midshipman aboard Druid from 1831-33 in the South Atlantic and was present during the insurrections at Montevideo and Rio de Janeiro. In 1834 he transferred to North Star and completed his cadetship on the Pacific station in 1836. By all accounts the ship suffered great hardships, on account of exceptionally severe weather when rounding Cape Horn.

He thence served in several ships in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, being present aboard the Revenge for the operations off Syria (Medal & clasp).

Having passed his Lieutenants Exam in 1837, he was not actually promoted until February 1844 and his first appointment as First Lieutenant was aboard Plover, which was engaged on the Chinese Coastal Survey until 1846. In 1848 he was appointed First Lieutenant on Pantaloon, which was involved in the suppression of the slave trade off the west coast of Africa. Following this he moved to Ascension Island as second in command of the Naval Station and remained there until 1853. His last appointment in the Royal Navy was as First Lieutenant of the Himalaya in 1855 during the Crimea operations (Medal & clasp). Victoria on British Stamps contains a postal cover sent to him by his brother, The Rev. Aubrey Townsend in June 1855 when the Himalaya was moored in the harbour at Balaclava.

For some years he and his wife lived at 11 Burlington Street, Bath, before they moved to Lona, Ellenborough Park, Weston-Super-Mare in 1861, having bought the property for £800. Townsend was made Commissioner of Public Works in Weston-Super-Mare from 1860-73 and during this time he was responsible for a great many improvements to the town. In January 1867 he was promoted to Commander (Retired) and was appointed a Nautical Assessor for the County of Somerset on 23 August 1872 (London Gazette, refers).

In about 1873 John was appointed Financial Manager to the Parliamentary Solicitors, Messrs Baxter & Co of 5 Victoria Street, London and he and Marianne took a lease on a house at 12 Macaulay Road, Clapham. Five years later they moved to 3 Spencer Park, Wandsworth where they remained until John had to resign in 1879 through ill health. The subsequent loss of income and the failure of their rental income from Ireland, forced John and Marianne to move to Langdon House, St Ann's Hill, Wandsworth. Townsend died on 11 February 1884 and is buried in the West Norwood Cemetery.

See http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~townsend/tree/record.php?ref=622 for further details.

Subject to 5% tax on Hammer Price in addition to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium.

Sold for
£2,000

Starting price
£600