Captain Thomas Stuart’s Medals for Gallant Service 1793-1840

Captain Thomas Stuart’s Medals for Gallant Service 1793-1840. This very fine group of four medals was awarded to Captain T. Stuart, Royal Navy, who was recognised for his part in the Syria operations of 1840, having already earned two Royal National Institution Lifesaving Medals for acts in his native Ireland, besides the reward of a Lloyds Sword for saving the Hannah in 1829. They are mounted in a fitted, blue velvet lined, oak display box by Hunt & Roskell. Each medal is in a fitted recess and the two for saving lives from shipwreck have their citations recorded on brass plaques above them. The lid has a handle with the brass plate engraved ‘Captn. Thomas Stuart R.N.‘ English, circa 1840. Naval General Service 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Syria (T. Stuart, Senr. Lieut. R.N.), with a silver riband buckle. Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, George the Fourth Patron, silver (Lieut. Thos. Stuart R.N. Voted 3 Decr. 1834). On a plain blue ribbon. Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, George the Fourth Patron, silver (Lieut. Thos. Stuart R.N. Voted 10 Jany. 1838). On a plain blue ribbon St Jean d’Acre 1840, silver issue, with Ottoman script and date beneath a depiction of the fort at Acre. Captain Thomas Stuart R.N. (1797-1885) was born in Limerick, Ireland and entered the Royal Navy in December 1811. During the Syria campaign, he was the Senior Lieutenant aboard Hazard and was promoted to Commander on 4 November 1840 for his gallant conduct during the bombardments in which he took part. Besides the two Lifesaving medals and two campaign medals he earned during his career, Stuart was also in receipt of ‘..a valuable sword from Lloyds, for bringing in a vessel to Portsmouth from the Western Islands, which his ship had fallen in with in a sinking state.’ That sword was earned whilst with Captain Austin in saving Hannah in 1829. The two previous silver medals from the Royal National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck were ‘For having put off in a boat & assisted to save the crew of 5 men of the sloop James which was wrecked in Cushendun Bay on the 3rd December 1834’ and ‘For having (unassisted) taken 3 men off a wreck among breakers to which no boat could venture. Ballymacaw Co. Waterford. 10 January 1838.’ He married Lucy Bland, the daughter of Commander Bland, of Derryquin Castle, where he took his seat upon his return from the Mediterranean. The Captain died in Cork in 1885.