THE CRIMEAN WAR MEDAL AWARDED TO PAYMASTER JAMES TERRY, WHO COMMANDED THE TROOPSHIP RESISTANCE DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR AND WHO HAD PREVIOUSLY SEEN SERVICE IN A CIVILIAN CAPACITY DURING THE DISASTROUS NIGER RIVER EXEDITION OF 1841-42,

THE CRIMEAN WAR MEDAL AWARDED TO PAYMASTER JAMES TERRY, WHO COMMANDED THE TROOPSHIP HMS RESISTANCE DURING THE CRIMEAN WAR AND WHO HAD PREVIOUSLY SEEN SERVICE IN A CIVILIAN CAPACITY DURING THE DISASTROUS NIGER RIVER EXEDITION OF 1841-42, AS CHIEF CLERK TO THE EXPEDITION’S COMMISSIONER, WILLIAM COOK, ABOARD HMS WILBERFORCE. A LARGE NUMBER OF MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION DIED OF A VARIETY OF TROPICAL DISEASES, COLLECTIVELY KNOWN AT THE TIME AS “RIVER FEVER”, RESULTING IN THE NAVAL OFFICERS COMMANDING THE EXPEDITION ORDERING ITS ABANDONMENT. TERRY WAS PRAISED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE EXPEDITION BY TWO OF THE NAVAL OFFICERS WHO LED IT AND HIS NAME RECORDED FOR POSTERITY BY THE COMMANDERS OF THE EXPEDITON, WHO RENAMED ONE THE THE NATURAL FEATURES ENCOUNTERED, THE “TERRY MOUNTAINS”. THE RECOGNITION TERRY RECEIVED FOR HIS EFFORTS DURING THE EXPEDITION RESULTED IN HIS SUBSEQUENTLY OBTAINING AN APPOINTMENT IN THE ROYAL NAVY. Crimea Medal, no clasp (neatly engraved inHunt & Roskell style square serifed capitals: MR. JAS. E. TERRY. RESISTANCE.). Attractively toned, Almost Extremely Fine.

Medal accompanied by Muster Roll for HMS Wilberforce for the period 1841-42, 1 page of Royal Navy officer’s service papers, Crimean War period muster roll for HMS Resistance, extracts from published accounts and the official report of the Niger River Expedition in which Terry is mentioned on a number of occasions, along with copied extract from 1861 census return, marriage and deaths index extracts.

James Erskine Terry (1818-1874) was born in Edinburgh, 1/6/1818. The Muster Roll for HMS Wilberforce confirms Terry’s presence as Chief Clerk to the Commissioner aboard that ship during the Niger River expedition. On the strength of his service during the expedition, Terry subsequently obtained an appointment in the Royal Navy, Assistant Clerk, on 19/10/1846. His service papers confirm that he saw service aboard HMS Resistance, initially as a Clerk, from 16/4/1850, as Clerk in Charge from 1/1/1853, and as Paymaster, from 25/4/1854. The Crimean War period Muster Roll for HMS Resistance records Terry as being “Paymaster, as clerk in charge”. Terry is recorded in the 1861 census as being a Paymaster aboard the hulk “Victoria” in Portsmouth Harbour. Terry retired from the Royal Navy on 2/5/1872 and died on 3/1/1874, leaving an estate valued at £450. Terry married Mary Wilkins, widow of Harvey Lonsdale Elms, at St George’s, Hanover Square, on 22/4/1858.

For his services as Chief Clerk during the Niger Expedition, James Terry was mentioned favourably in the official report on the expedition by the two naval officers who commanded it, Captain H.D. Trotter recording that “Mr. Terry not only performed with diligence his particular duty, as per, but strove to render himself useful in every possible way, and in particular by affording assistance in the survey of the river, and aiding Commander William Allen in taking magnetical and other observations, an assistance which he rendered with an assiduity that did him the greatest credit” and Captain William Allen stating “I would most respectfully repeat the recommendations in my letter of 18th of November in favour of Mr. James Erskine Terry, Chief Clerk to the Commissioners, who, after having suffered severely in the expedition, in which he performed his duties to my satisfaction, is now thrown out of employment, and is one of the few who have received no reward for their arduous services.”

HMS Wilberforce was named after William Wilberforce (1759-1853), the philanthropist and political activist who led the successful campaign for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. William Cook was appointed Commissioner of the Niger Expedition by Queen Victoria, with the authority to make treaties with native chiefs for the suppression of the external slave trade and for the establishment of lawful commerce. The expedition consisted of four vessels, HM ships Wilberforce, Albert, Soudan and Amelia.

The histories of the expedition give a detailed account of the difficulties encountered in navigation previously little explored waterways of the Niger Delta and the expedition’s encounters and negotiations with a number of tribal leaders. On occasions when the expedition members went ashore, they often found local conditions difficult, and in one village slept in trees in order to escape from the rats and other vermin that infested the huts they were allocated as temporary accommodation. The expedition made two journeys into the Niger Delta, one in 1841 and the other the following year, before the Naval commanders, their command overwhelmed by sickness and disease, called off the expedition and withdrew to the island of Fernando Po. Whilst the expedition was in the Niger delta, 42 out of 159 of its European members died of accident, sickness and disease and, after the expedition had withdrawn to Fernando Po, a further 13 members succumbed.

William Cook, the Commissioner Terry served under during the Niger Expedition, had previously come to national prominence and been much praised when, as Master of the Brigantine Cambria, he played the leading role in saving the lives of the majority of the passengers and crew of the East Indiaman “Kent”, lost by explosion and fire at sea on 1/3/1825, in one of the most remarkable maritime rescues. The Cambrian, with a normal complement of 47 passengers and crew, and en route to Mexico, took on board some 553 survivors from the “Kent”. Captain Cook successfully navigated the heavily laden “Cambria” to Falmouth without incident, the survivors being disembarked there three days after the Kent sank.

Whilst the expedition was in the Niger River it was joined by a number of native volunteers, including Samuel Ajai Crowther, who went on to become an African missionary and, in later life, a Bishop.

James Terry’s presence with the Niger Expedition of 1841-42 was recorded for posterity when the expedition named a range of mountains encountered during the expedition the “Terry Mountains” in his honour.

HMS Resistance was a 38 gun 5th rate ship of the line, launched in 1805. Unfit for further service as a ship of the line, she was converted into a troop ship in 1842 and broken up in 1858.