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Auction: 23113 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 7

A rare Army of India Medal awarded to Captain C. C. Wells, Bombay Marine, who shared in the actions - some of these as a Bluejacket - of the campaign in the gunboat Asseerghur

Having retired, Wells became Mayor of Tenby and latterly fought a duel in September 1842

Army of India 1799-1826, 1 clasp, Ava (Lieut. Charles Wells, Bombay Marine), short hyphen reverse, officially impressed naming, good very fine

Just 27 medals issued to the Bombay Marine, all for Ava.

Charles Cook Wells was born in 1802. During the First Anglo-Burmese War he served aboard the six-gun brig Asseerghur, armed with six brass 6-pounders and two 12-pounder carronades. On 10 February 1825, she was sent as part of the small Squadron to investigate the entrances to the Mayoo and Aracan rivers. She shared in the action by which the Asseergur, Pluto and small gun boats proceeded some eight miles upstream, fired and landed at Patinga. Going ashore as part of this Bluejacket action, they found the 100 yard parade square and full barracks, which they burnt. By 20 February spies had given information that the Governor of Arracan was coming down the river with some 100 gun boats and thousands of men, ready for the scrap. Having come back down the river, she also shared in the larger action at Chamballa, when at 1400hrs they came into full sight of the stockade and battery. It later transpired it was held under the command of the son of the Rajah of Arracan and several other high ranking Chiefs. As the engagement opened, the Asseerghur was grounded and remained held off but latterly came in with the Research, Asia Felix and Isabella to take the water which was presented. Total losses for the Squadron were 2 Officers and 4 men killed, 32 wounded (5 of these mortally wounded). She then proceeded up the river to assist in forming a junction with the Army at Mahattie (History Of The Indian Navy: (1613-1863), refers).

Perhaps the best account of his career and exploits is covered by the Pembrokeshire Historical Society:

'The Mayor of Tenby, Charles Cook Wells, was well-known locally, and infamous later as a perpetrator of the attempts (in 1867 and 1873) by the Tenby Council to demolish the historic Five Arches of the town walls; attempts which were foiled by an injunction.

Charles Wells was for years in the Honourable East India Company’s Indian Navy, the fighting Navy at the time styled the Bombay Marine (there was also a Mercantile Navy under the Company). We have access to year-ending records of the officers in this service showing that Charles Wells entered as a Midshipman (a young trainee officer) on 27 May 1815 and was five years on the Mercury. In 1818 there were 31 Midshipmen and 12 Senior Midshipmen in the service altogether, with 3 and 1 respectively on the Mercury. From 1820-22 he was a Senior Midshipman, but was Acting 2nd Lieutenant on the Thetis (1820) and the Aurora (1821). From 1822-23 he was on sick leave to England.

He became Second Lieutenant from 9 May 1823, on the Hastings. In December 1825 he was placed “under arrest” for an unknown offence: the India Office records are silent on the matter. He became First Lieutenant 18 January 1827, but for three years 1826-28 was on sick leave in England. There is a record that on his way home in late 1826 or early 1827 he was stranded in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, when his ship sailed in the night without him, and he had to borrow £120 from the East India Company’s agent there in order to get back to England.

In 1832 he was placed in command of a ketch and from June 1835 became a Commander, but for the three years 1835-37 was on furlough in England. As described later, we know that he was in London on 30 September 1835 as executor for probate of Hugh Cook’s will, and it seems very probable that he never went back to India. Another source describes briefly correspondence connected with him. His leave was again extended on account of ill health and in May 1838 he was permitted to retire on a pension of £360 per annum from 31 October 1847. But nearly two years before that decision, in September 1836, Wells was in Tenby.

Herein lies a curious enigma. Charles Wells (minus “Cook”) was left a considerable legacy by a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, Hugh Cook, who was a native of Tenby and died in London in September 1834. His will, with a list of his property in Tenby and Penally (plus nearly £9,000 in bonds), named Charles Wells as executor. His sister Martha, also living in London, found his will locked in a trunk together with the list of his property and presented them, but enquiries at India House had not found out when Charles Wells would be returning to England, or where he might be contacted, so Martha became provisional executor for collecting rents in October 1834.

Charles Wells took the oath as executor of the will in London on 30 September 1835. There is evidence that he was doing business in Tenby in 1836, so it is likely that he stayed in Tenby, although no evidence has been found that he had known the area previously. Sickness or legacy, or perhaps both, may have been responsible for his decision to retire to Tenby to look after the property that he had gained.

While in India, Charles Wells had married a daughter of a former officer, Richard Edmond Goodridge, who had also been in the Bombay Marine, on 27 March 1833 in Bombay. The bride Sophia Amelia was one of twin girls born in 1814, her twin sister being Amelia Sophia. She was aged 18, Charles Wells about 31. The two officers must surely have been friends (their age difference was about 12 years), giving Wells a home­from-home in Bombay. There is a most revealing fact about their wedding – the bridegroom was named as Charles Cook Wells, which establishes beyond doubt that he possessed the name Cook before the death of Hugh Cook his benefactor. This dismisses as fiction the generally-accepted account that Charles Wells adopted the name Cook when he arrived in Tenby, in Hugh Cook’s memory. Perhaps he himself spread the rumour, but at least by his lack of denial of it, it indicates that he must have supported it.

The bride’s father died a sick man on board ship, on 14 May 1833 while returning to Britain. The Wells’ first child Selina arrived years later in Tenby, being 6 months old for the 1841 census held in early June.

Why did the bulk of Hugh Cook’s estate go to Charles Wells, rather than to his brother or sister? The Inland Revenue record of bequests shows that the value of the estate approached £30,000 and that Charles Wells actually paid death duty of over £1,200 in four instalments; Wells was styled “stranger” on the record and so paid the highest rate of tax.'

Wells was to share in a duel with Captain Francis Rivers Freeling, after having attended The Master of the Ceremonies’ Ball with his wife. It seems Freeling may have offended Wells in some way relating to his wife and thus The Globe reported:

'A hostile meeting took place at Tenby, on Tuesday Morning, in a field near the town, between C. Wells, Esq. (the Mayor) and Captain Freeling (son of the late Sir Francis Freeling). Two shots were exchanged, but happily without effect.'

The Welshman also reported:

'The reason why we did not publish the names of the parties to the Tenby duel was, because we thought that the feelings of an amiable and injured lady, and those of a deceived husband, called for forbearance, and we could not bring ourselves to add to their bitterness by giving additional notoriety to the affair.'

The duel over and honour restored, Wells died in 1882. After his death, it was incorrectly reported that his son was the famous gambler 'Monte Carlo Wells' - although this point was eventually corrected.

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Sold for
£3,200

Starting price
£1000