Pair: Acting Lieutenant E. H. Stuart, Royal Navy, who was thrice Mentioned in Despatches...

Pair: Acting Lieutenant E. H. Stuart, Royal Navy, who was thrice Mentioned in Despatches for services during the Second Opium War, before being dismissed the service in 1858 India General Service 1854-95, 1 clasp, Pegu (Edmd. H. Stuart. Midn. “Spartan”); China 1857-60, 1 clasp, Fatshan 1857, unnamed as issued, both housed in a contemporary fitted case, the lid embossed ‘Lieut. Edmund Stuart, R.N.’, lacquered, minor edge bruising to first, nearly extremely fine (2) £400-£500 --- Approximately 180 India General Service Medals with clasp Pegu awarded to H.M.S. Spartan. Edmund Henry Stuart was born in 1820, the son of Commander Thomas Stuart, Royal Navy, and was appointed a Midshipman in the frigate H.M.S. Spartan, 26 guns, serving in in that vessel during the Pegu campaign from 5 April to 20 December 1852. Having then been almost certainly present in that vessel in Chinese waters during anti-piracy operations in the Macau River in later 1854, when men from the ship’s boats carried a battery and destroyed junks in Coulan Bay on 13 November 1854, he travelled home and was appointed Acting Mate on 19 August 1855. He was subsequently posted to H.M.S. Calcutta, 84 guns, departing in her for the East Indies in May 1856. Stuart served with distinction in the Calcutta during the Second Opium War, being Mentioned in Despatches for the destruction of the 23 mandarin war junks and the capture of the French Folly Fort on 6 November 1856. Promoted Acting Lieutenant on 9 March 1857, he was again Mentioned in Despatches for the destruction of the Fatshan Flotilla of Chinese war junks on 1 June 1857 during the Battle of Fatshan Creek (London Gazette 1 August 1857), during which battle he served as Second-in-Command of the Calcutta’s launch. Appointed to the frigate H.M.S. Pique, 36 guns, he was Mentioned in Despatches for a third time for his services on shore whilst with the crew of the Pique, during the first capture of the Taku Forts on 20 May 1858 (London Gazette 28 July 1858). However, his promising career came to an end on 6 December 1858 when he was dismissed the service for ‘gross misconduct’; consequently he never received the ‘Taku Forts 1858’ clasp to which he would have been entitled. He died soon after, in 1860.