Lot Essay
Ex Hamilton-Smith 1927 and Needes 1937 Collections.
The published Naval General Service Medal rolls confirm Edmund Pope as a Midshipman aboard the Valiant for Basque Roads on 11.4.1809 and, although the date '27' does not appear on the clasp and he is not actually shown on the Admiralty rolls for the Boat Service action of 27.9.1810, both verify him as 'present and entitled' while employed in the same capacity, thereby making him one of just 34 recipients of this latter clasp.
Lieutenant Edmund Pope 'entered the Royal Navy in May 1807, passed his examination in 1815 and obtained his Commission in March 1827. He has since been on Half-Pay' (O'Byrne refers). As a witness to the Boat Service action of 27.9.1810, he would have participated in the storming of a Battery at Che Point in the Basque Roads and in the subsequent capture of two French Brigs and the destruction of a third.
The published Naval General Service Medal rolls confirm Edmund Pope as a Midshipman aboard the Valiant for Basque Roads on 11.4.1809 and, although the date '27' does not appear on the clasp and he is not actually shown on the Admiralty rolls for the Boat Service action of 27.9.1810, both verify him as 'present and entitled' while employed in the same capacity, thereby making him one of just 34 recipients of this latter clasp.
Lieutenant Edmund Pope 'entered the Royal Navy in May 1807, passed his examination in 1815 and obtained his Commission in March 1827. He has since been on Half-Pay' (O'Byrne refers). As a witness to the Boat Service action of 27.9.1810, he would have participated in the storming of a Battery at Che Point in the Basque Roads and in the subsequent capture of two French Brigs and the destruction of a third.