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Auction: 6025 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals & Militaria
Lot: 344

x A Most Interesting and Speculative Naval General Service Medal to John Felton, Signal Midshipman in H.M.S. Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar 21st October 1805, Who is Reputed to Have Been in the Victory´s Cockpit to Witness the Death of Admiral Nelson Naval General Service 1793-1840, two clasps, Copenhagen 1801, Trafalgar (John Felton, Midshipman.), obverse brooch mounted, and as such suspension re-affixed, nearly very fine, with the following original documentation: - Commission appointing J. Felton as Commander (Retired), Royal Navy, dated 1.7.1861, this in a glass frame - copy of Marriage Certificate of John Felton to Caterina Antoinette Valls, issued by the Mayor of Marseille and verified by both the British and Spanish Consuls, dated 12.5.1820 - Passport Document permitting Felton and his wife passage through Gibraltar to Quebec, dated 9.6.1823 - First copy of recipient´s Last Will and Testament, dated 1.3.1838 - draft of a letter by the recipient in his own hand to the Admiralty, with a quantity of copied documentation referring to the recipient´s Court Martial and subsequent re-instatement into the Navy (lot) Estimate £ 8,000-12,000Commander John Felton, R.N. (1785-1866), born Hackney, London; on Felton´s service papers he is listed as Captain´s Servant H.M.S. Bellerophon, 1791, before transferring later in the same year to a similar position in H.M.S. Vengeance - given his age it is likely that he would have been ´borne on the books´ for ´time´ by courtesy of the respective Captains; Volunteer H.M.S. Galatea, 1798; served as Able Seaman H.M.S. Bellona, before being appointed Midshipman, 14.11.1799 and served in the latter at the battle of Copenhagen (2.4.1801); served in H.M.S. Clyde, 7.7.1802-29.6.1803 before being appointed Midshipman H.M.S. Victory, 8.9.1805 and serving in her at the battle of Trafalgar; Lieutenant 1806; appointed to the sloop H.M.S. Curieux and was in action with her against the French privateer Revanche, and her employment in the West Indies. On 3.11.1809 the Curieux struck the rocks off Pettit-Terre off the Saintes and was lost, ´That the loss of the said sloop must be attributed to the negligence of Lieutenant John Felton then Officer of the Watch, more particularly for his not having exercised promptness and decision in getting His Majesty´s sloop Curieux out of danger after the land was discovered and do adjudge him to be dismissed from His Majesty´s Service. The Court conceives much reprehension is due to Mr. John Woods the Master for not having more clearly stated the situation of the Curieux to Lieutenant John Felton who relieved him, and do admonish him to be more cautious in the future.´ (copy of Court Martial findings included in the lot, refers) Felton was dismissed from the Royal Navy 10.3.1810. He seems to have joined his brother William Bowman Felton (Admiralty Agent Victualler in Port Mahon, Minorca) in the next few years being involved with private shipping in the Mediterranean before the two brothers and other relations emigrated to Canada. The family took up large grants of virgin forest Crown Land in Sherbrooke, Lower Canada. John Felton finally settled in Sherbrooke in 1823, becoming a Magistrate in the district of St. Francis and acting as an Agent for Crown Lands. He spent 37 years in the post, and during that time, despite being exempt, served as a private Militiaman during the troubles in Lower Canada, 1837-38. In 1849 Felton applied for and received his Naval General Service medal with two clasps. In the summer of 1860 he submitted a Memorandum to the Admiralty seeking restoration to the Navy Lists and his former rank. Luckily for him this coincided that year with the Royal Visit of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) to Canada and America, accompanied by the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State for the Colonies. During the part of the tour to the Eastern Townships the Prince was made aware of John Felton´s history and potentially harsh treatment by court martial. At a levee the Prince received Felton, ´His Royal Highness having been made aware of the hardships of Mr. Felton´s case, - not by him, for he suffered uncomplainingly, - chose this day as the occasion for exercising the prerogative delegated by Her Majesty to him, and, when the old man presented himself at the reception, not only received him with the greatest cordiality, speaking to him kindly words, but intimated that from that moment he was restored to the position he had lost. This it was which caused the ebullition of feeling on the part of his brother sailor, Captain Moore, and the cheering on the part of that of the crowd. The act was in itself graceful, it was gracefully performed, and it was thoroughly appreciated. Everyone looked delighted. Mr. Felton could not conceal his pleasure, though he tried to look unmoved, and Mrs. Felton looked at her husband with more than usual pride as he and she were receiving the congratulation of the people.´ (The Tour of H.R.H. The Prince of Wales Through British America and The United States, printed by J. Lovell 1860, refers). The Duke of Newcastle belatedly set about arranging the above proceedure in a letter to the Admiralty, dated 13.2.1861, on behalf of the Prince of Wales. In requesting Felton´s re-instatement to the Navy, Newcastle refers to him as the ´Signal Midshipman on board the Victory´. The credibility of this statement is further attested to by the Order given in Privy Council (16.4.1861) restoring Felton to the Navy Lists, by referring to him as, ´this gentleman served in the battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and was signal midshipmate [sic.] of the Victory at Trafalgar.´ After due process, on 24.4.1861 the Admiralty wrote to John Felton informing him that he had been restored as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. He was retired Commander 1.7.1861. On the 31st of the same month Felton received a congratulatory letter on his promotion from the principal residents of his adopted Sherbrooke, ´We have known and respected you sir, for a long series of years, and have admired your unswerving loyalty under circumstances calculated to test the feelings of most men.... We are satisfied that there is not an individual in this community, or indeed in the whole District, who does not rejoice at this well merited tribute to your worth.´ (copy of letter included in lot refers). Commander J. Felton, R.N., died 21.10.1866 and is buried in the Church of England Cemetery, Prospect Street, Sherbrooke, Canada where there is a monument to him. In his obituary in the Sherbrooke Gazette (27.10.1866) he is given as, ´an officer under the immortal Nelson, his signal midshipman at the Battle of Trafalgar, on the 21st October 1805 (possibly the last survivor of that celebrated day), and the witness of his hero´s glorious death, on that same occasion, in the cockpit of the Victory.´ (copy included in the lot refers).

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