Lot Essay
The published Naval General Service Medal rolls confirm William Bailey as a Master's Mate aboard H.M.S. Lion for the Java operations of 1811.
Lieutenant William Bailey entered the Royal Navy as a First Class Volunteer aboard H.M.S. Lion in January 1806 and continued to serve in her for upwards of seven years, the greater part of this time as Midshipman and Master's Mate. During this period he was engaged in escorting various convoys to and from the East Indies and China and was frequently employed, during ongoing disputes with inhabitants of the latter country, in landing and re-embarking troops and was twice engaged in boat actions with a very superior force of piratical vessels.
In 1810 he enjoyed a more peaceful voyage when he accompanied Sir George Ouseley and the Persian Ambassador Mirza Abdul Hassan from England to Persia but was back in action in the following year in the Java operations, when he served with the Division of Boats under Captain Maunsell and was with them at the capture of two Gunboats and a Despatch Boat near Samarang on the night 10.9.1811.
Invalided from the East Indies aboard the Racehorse in April 1814, Bailey next joined the Royal Yacht Royal Sovereign and in her escorted Louis XVIII to Calais and attended on the Allied Sovereigns at the Grand Naval Review at Spithead. Bailey was advanced to Lieutenant in June of the same year but his service aboard the Royal Yacht appears to have been his final seagoing appointment.
Lieutenant William Bailey entered the Royal Navy as a First Class Volunteer aboard H.M.S. Lion in January 1806 and continued to serve in her for upwards of seven years, the greater part of this time as Midshipman and Master's Mate. During this period he was engaged in escorting various convoys to and from the East Indies and China and was frequently employed, during ongoing disputes with inhabitants of the latter country, in landing and re-embarking troops and was twice engaged in boat actions with a very superior force of piratical vessels.
In 1810 he enjoyed a more peaceful voyage when he accompanied Sir George Ouseley and the Persian Ambassador Mirza Abdul Hassan from England to Persia but was back in action in the following year in the Java operations, when he served with the Division of Boats under Captain Maunsell and was with them at the capture of two Gunboats and a Despatch Boat near Samarang on the night 10.9.1811.
Invalided from the East Indies aboard the Racehorse in April 1814, Bailey next joined the Royal Yacht Royal Sovereign and in her escorted Louis XVIII to Calais and attended on the Allied Sovereigns at the Grand Naval Review at Spithead. Bailey was advanced to Lieutenant in June of the same year but his service aboard the Royal Yacht appears to have been his final seagoing appointment.