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Auction: 7012 - Orders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria
Lot: 510

The Highly Important Baltic Victoria Cross to Commander, Later Rear-Admiral John Bythesea, Royal Navy, Who Took Part In The Daring Mission To Capture Russian Despatches, and Took Three of the Enemy Prisoner, Armed Only With a Single Flint Pistol; The Second Ever Victoria Cross to be Awarded Victoria Cross, reverse of suspension bar engraved ´Commander John Bythesea´, reverse of Cross engraved ´12 Aug 1854´, reverse of suspension bar cleaned, one of the earliest castings and therefore extremely fine, with a fine quality related miniature award, reverse of suspension bar engraved ´Comr. Bythesea RN´, reverse of Cross engraved ´12th. Augst. 1854´ Estimate £ 90,000-110,000 V.C. London Gazette 24.2.1857 John Bythesea, Commander ´On the 9th August, 1854, having ascertained that an Aide-de-Camp of the Emperor of Russia had landed on the Island of Wardo, in charge of a mail and despatches for the Russian General, Commander Bythesea obtained permission for himself and William Johnstone, a stoker, to proceed on shore with the view to intercept them. Being disguised and well armed, they concealed themselves till the night of the 12th, when the mail-bags were landed, close to the spot where they lay secreted in the bushes. The mails were accompanied by a military escort, which passed close to them, and which, as soon as it was ascertained that the road was clear, took its departure. Availing themselves of this opportunity, Commadore (sic) Bythesea and the stoker, attacked the five men in charge of the mail, took three of them prisoners, and brought them in their own boat on board the "Arrogant." The despatches were carried to General Baraguay d´Hilliers, who expressed himself in the highest terms of approval. (Despatch from Captain Yelverton, enclosed in a Letter from Vice-Admiral Sir C. Napier, of 31st January, 1856.)´ Rear-Admiral John Bythesea, V.C., C.B., C.I.E., was born on the 15th June, 1827, at Bath, the youngest son of the Rev. George Bythesea, Rector and Patron of Freshford, Somerset; his eldest brother, Lieutenant G.C.G. Bythesea, 81st Foot, was killed in action at Ferozeshah. He entered the Royal Navy in 1841, passing the examination on the 6th January, 1848, and was promoted Mate a month later. He served in H.M.S. Victory February- June 1848; in the East Indies in H.M.S. Pilot June 1848- June 1849, and was promoted Lieutenant on the 12th June, 1849. Service in the Baltic Lieutenant Bythesea was appointed to H.M.S. Arrogant, 28.9.1852, and served with the Fleet under Admiral Sir Charles Napier´s command in the Baltic during the Crimean War. On 19 May, 1854, whilst examining the channel near Teverminne, the Arrogant, together with H.M.S. Hecla which was accompanying her, was fired upon by a force of Russian troops posted behind a sandbank; the enemy was soon dispersed, and the next morning the two ships were able to proceed up a narrow channel to the town of Ekness. Determined opposition was encountered from two powerful batteries, and the Arrogant suffered two killed and four wounded before the enemy´s guns were silenced. On the 7th August, 1854, with the British Fleet now stationed off the Island of Wardo, Captain Hastings Yelverton, the Arrogant´s commander, paid an official visit to Sir Charles Napier, and received a gentle rebuke concerning the fact that despatches from the Tsar were constantly being landed on the Island of Wardo, and then forwarded to the Commanding Officer at Bomarsund, whilst no action was being taken to prevent this. Upon hearing this, Lieutenant Bythesea was determined to carry out Sir Charles´ wishes, and chose to accompany him Stoker William Johnstone, a foreign national who spoke Swedish. When informed of Lieutenant Bythesea´s intentions, Captain Yelverton initially suggested a stronger force, but this was decided against on the grounds that a larger party would be more likely to draw unwanted attention upon it. On the 9th August, Lieutenant Bythesea and Stoker Johnstone rowed ashore to a small bay, and made their way to a local farmhouse, whose owner had lost all his horses to the Russians, and was therefore eager to assist. He provided food and lodging for them in the farmhouse, and told how the Russians had recently improved a nine mile stretch of the local road, to facilitate the messengers carrying the despatches to Bomarsund. Meanwhile, the Russians had learnt of the arrival of a shore party from the British Fleet, and sent out search parties throughout the neighbourhood; Bythesea and Johnstone only avoided capture through the help of the their host´s daughters, who disguised them by dressing them up as Finnish peasants. On the 12th August Lieutenant Bythesea learned from the farmer that the Russian Mail boat had landed, and that the despatches would be sent down to the fortress at Bomarsund at nightfall, with a Military escort to accompany them part of the way. As soon as the escort had turned back, Lieutenant Bythesea and Johnstone ambushed the five couriers, armed only with a single flint pistol. Two of the five couriers fled, but the other three, together with the despatches, were captured, and ordered back to the boat in which they had recently arrived. The prisoners were then forced to row back to the Arrogant, with Johnstone steering, whilst Lieutenant Bythesea covered them with the pistol. The prisoners were then put on board the Arrogant, whilst the despatches were taken to Sir Charles Napier and General Baraguay d´Hilliers, whose admiration was unbounded. As a result of his daring exploit, Lieutenant Bythesea was given command of the three gun steam vessel H.M.S. Locust, and was present at the fall of Bomarsund, and the bombardment of Sveaborg in August 1855; he was promoted to Commander on the 10th May, 1856. Investiture The Victoria Cross was instituted on the 29th January, 1856, with the first awards backdated for the Baltic and the Crimea gazetted on the 24th February, 1857. The first Victoria Cross to be actually won was that to Lieutenant Charles Lucas, H.M.S. Hecla, for throwing a live shell overboard on the 21st June, 1854, an action which initially earned him an immediate promotion; Lieutenant Bythesea´s and Stoker William Johnstone´s were the second and third Victoria Crosses to be won (although the 22nd and 23rd to be gazetted in the first list of recipients). The first investiture took place in Hyde Park amid great fanfare on the 26th June 1857, when 62 of the then 93 recipients to date received their Crosses from the Queen; the remaining 31 recipients were all currently serving overseas. The recipients were awarded the decoration in order of precedence, by service, unit, and rank, and, as a result, Commander Bythesea was the second man to have the Victoria Cross pinned on him by the Queen, after Commander Henry Raby. The Hyde Park investiture was the first public occasion on which Queen Victoria appeared riding a horse in London, and she remained seated on ´Sunset´ whilst conferring each award. Stoker William Johnstone was one of those recipients serving overseas at the time, and his Victoria Cross was sent out for presentation aboard his ship. China and India In 1858 Commander Bythesea was appointed to H.M.S. Cruizer, and joined the operations against China in 1859-60, and was present at the taking of the Peiho Forts, and forcing the Nanking Forts. Promoted Captain on the 15th May, 1861, he served on the Royal Defence Commission in 1862, and was later appointed to the Sloop H.M.S. Archer, but was invalided home in 1864. The following year he was appointed Naval Attaché at Washington, and in May 1867 was appointed to H.M.S. Phoebe, serving with the Flying Squadron sailing around the world under the command of Admiral Sir Geoffrey Hornby. His last sea-going command was in 1870, when he was appointed to the battleship H.M.S. Lord Clyde. In March 1872, whilst going to the aid of a paddle steamer that had ran aground of Malta, the Lord Clyde also ran aground, and had to be towed off by her sister ship, the H.M.S. Lord Warden. Captain Bythesea and his Navigating Officer were both court-martialled, and they were both severely reprimanded, dismissed from the ship, and neither were to be employed at sea again. In 1874, having married, Captain Bythesea was appointed Consulting Naval Officer to the Indian Government, and over the next six years restructured the Royal Indian Marine out of the old Indian Navy. He was appointed a Companion of the Military Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1877 (London Gazette 2.6.1877), and a Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire the following year (Authority 1.1.1878). He retired from the active list on the 5th August, 1877, and was promoted Rear-Admiral, 22nd August 1877. Rear-Admiral Bythesea died in London on the 18th May, 1906, and is buried in Bath Abbey Cemetery; a memorial to him was erected in his father´s old church at Freshford. The background of Stoker William Johnstone is subject to some debate. Although he was gazetted thus, there was no one on the Arrogant´s muster list of this name at the time. There was a Leading Stoker John Johnstone, who was born in Hanover, Germany, on the ship at the time, and this is the man usually credited with winning the Victoria Cross. However, it is doubtful that he would also have spoken Swedish. It is possible therefore that Lieutenant Bythesea´s companion was one of the foreign nationals whom Sir Charles Napier had recruited from Stockholm, on the way to the Baltic, to solve the problem of an under-strength crew, and that Johnstone was an anglicised version of Johanssen.

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