NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1793-1840 WITH TRAFALGAR CLASP AWARDED TO ABLE SEAMAN GEORGE MILNE, HMS ACHILLES,

THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS, THE INTRIGUING NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1793-1840 WITH TRAFALGAR CLASP AWARDED TO ABLE SEAMAN GEORGE MILNE, HMS ACHILLES, A “PRESSED” MAN WHO WAS WOUNDED IN ACTION AT TRAFALGAR, AND SAW SERVICE WITH THE ROYAL NAVY USING THE ASSUMED NAME “GEORGE MIBERRY” (ALIAS SPELT “MIBRIE” IN SOME RECORDS).

LIKE MANY MEN WHO SAW SERVICE WITH THE ROYAL NAVY DURING THE NAPOLEONIC WARS USING ASSUMED NAMES, WHEN HIS NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL WAS ISSUED TO MILNE IN 1847, IT WAS IMPRESSED WITH THE ALIAS RECORDED FOR MILNE ON THE TRAFALGAR MUSTER ROLL FOR HMS ACHILLES, “GEORGE MIBERRY”.

GEORGE MILNE’S ALIAS, GEORGE MIBERRY, IS A UNIQUE NAME ON THE NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL ROLL.

OTHER THAN BEING USED BY GEORGE MILNE AS AN ALIAS WHILST SERVING WITH THE ROYAL NAVY, THE NAME GEORGE MIBERRY (OR MIBRIE) NOT TRACED IN ANY UK RECORD FOR THE PERIOD OF GEORGE MILNE’S LIFETIME, 1788-1865.

Naval General Service Medal 1793-1840, 1 clasp, Trafalgar (originally officially named, impressed in serifed block capitals “GEORGE MIBERRY”, but subsequently unofficially corrected, the letters “BERR” of “MIBERRY” erased and the letters ‘ILNE” from Milne’s correct surname engraved over the vacant space in a similar style to the officially impressed naming, the corrected naming reading: “GEORGE MILNE” (with the final letter “Y” from the original naming still faintly visible).

Minor scattered surface contact marks, otherwise Extremely Fine.

The name George Milne is not recorded in the medal roll for the Naval General Service Medal (original or published). The only name on the medal roll with the Christian name George, a surname beginning with the letters “MI”, ending with the letter “Y”, and for which there is sufficient space to fit the remaining letters of his surname into the space available, is George Miberry (the alias that George Milne used while serving with the Royal Navy).

George Milne was born in West Parish, Aberdeen, in 1788, the son of George and Margaret Milne, his father being a ship’s Master. Prior to joining the Royal Navy George Milne saw service with the Merchant Navy, and is recorded as having been pressed at Liverpool circa January 1805 whilst serving with the Columbo, a Merchant Navy Brig.

Correspondence contained in the Admiralty and Ministry of Defence, Navy Department, Correspondence and Papers, Captain’s Letters (ADM 1/1642) confirms that George Milne was pressed in February 1805, by a press-gang operating from the New Quay “Rendezvous” in Liverpool:

That file contains two letters regarding George Milne’s impressment; a letter dated Liverpool, 19th February 1805, from George Murdoch, Master of the Brig Columbo, Merchant Navy, addressed to the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty, petitioning for the discharge to shore of George Milne from HMS Princess (where he had been held since 5th February 1805, having been pressed), on the basis that Milne was the Mate of the Columbo, and as a result exempt from being pressed, and was also needed to assist in obtaining insurance compensation for damage to the cargo of the Columbo. The first letter reads as follows –

“I have the goodness to inform the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty that George Milne, Mate of the Brig Columbo of which I am Master was impressed at the New Quay Rendezvous and sent on board the Princess. As he had whole charge of the cargo to which there has been some damage done which requires his presence to recover insurance I hope they will be pleased to grant his discharge. An affidavit was produced, of his being Mate, at the Rendevous.”,

the letter signed by George Murdoch and with an address at 153 St James Street, Liverpool.

The file also contains subsequent letter from Captain John Culverhouse, Royal Navy, dated Liverpool, 26th February 1805, in reply to a letter from the office of the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty, recommending that the Lord Commissioners reject Murdoch’s petition, on the basis that Milne was only a seaman employed in Murdoch’s ship, with no responsibility for the cargo.

“In reply to your letter impacting George Milne – I have to acquaint you, for their Lordship’s information, that he was impressed in consequence of it appearing that the affidavit had been obtained for the purpose of protecting him as Mate and that he is a Seaman belonging to her without having charge of the cargo.”

The reverse of the letter from Captain Culverhouse with a note appended from the board of the Admiralty, dated 2nd March, rejecting the appeal for Milne’s release

“with no sufficient proof being produced of his being bona fide Mate their Lordships do not think fit to allow of his discharge”.

Captain Murdoch’s affidavit and petition having failed, Milne remained on board HMS Princess, then at anchor at Liverpool, as a pressed man.

Like many men who had been pressed, George Milne adopted an assumed name, George Miberry, and that assumed name was henceforth used continuously by Royal Navy Clerks when recording George’s movements from ship to ship and ship to shore until he was finally discharged from the Royal Navy in 1811.

The muster rolls for HMS Princess for the period May 1804-April 1805 (ADM 36/16434) record George Miberry (surname spelt Mibrie in initial muster) as a pressed man, joining HMS Princess on 5/2/1805, from a press-gang’s “Rendezvous at Liverpool”. The initial muster roll for that period records George as joining HMS Princess with the rank of Able Seaman, confirming that, by the time he was pressed, he already had considerable seagoing experience.

The muster for April 1805 records HMS Princess still at Liverpool, with George being discharged from HMS Princess to HMS Friendship on 11/4/1805.

The muster roll for HMS Friendship, a hired tender, for the period April – May 1805 (ADM 36/16157) confirms that George joined HMS Friendship from HMS Princess in April 1805 (appearance 12/4/1805). When George joined HMS Friendship he claimed that he was 20 years of age (born 1785) when in fact he was only 17 years of age (born 1788) no doubt claiming to be older that he was in order to receive the pay for an adult sailor rather than the reduced rate for a boy seaman. George is also recorded in the Friendship muster as not being a pressed man (presumably because by this stage George had opted to volunteer for service with the Royal Navy, in order to obtain the bounty paid to new volunteer recruits).

Being a volunteer rather than a pressed man also had other advantages in addition to the bounty. Since volunteers were regarded by their senior officers as less likely to desert than pressed men, their movements were less restricted, particularly when a ship was in port. Volunteers, unlike pressed men, were allowed to crew the ship’s boats, could go ashore when a ship was in port, or even go on leave.

The muster roll for HMS Friendship also records George as being transferred, along with a number of other men, to HMS Salvador del Mundo in April 1805, George subsequently seeing service with the Salvador del Mundo till May 1805.

The muster rolls for HMS Achilles for the period 1st October 1805 to 31st March 1806 (ADM 37/52) record George (alias surname henceforth continuously spelt “Miberry” in Royal Navy records) as having joined HMS Achilles on 9/5/1805 from the receiving ship HMS Salvador del Mundo, George being one of a number of men transferred from the Salvador del Mundo on on 9/5/1805. When George joined the Achilles he again stated that he was 20 years of age and that he had been born in Aberdeen (the location of the Military Staff Office to which George’s Naval General Service Medal was sent for collection in 1847). George saw service continuously with HMS Achilles from 8/10/1805 to 31/3/1806, being present for all musters during that period and seeing service aboard HMS Achilles at the battle of Trafalgar, 21st October 1805, as an Able Seaman.

The Allotment Register for HMS Achilles for 1806-1807 (ADM 27/11) records George electing to have allotments (deductions) from his pay forwarded to his mother, Margaret, via the Customs Office in Peterhead, from 1/10/1806 onwards.

George was wounded in action at the battle of Trafalgar, receiving compensation for his wounds of £20 from the Lloyds Patriotic Fund (the Lloyds Patriotic Fund paid the sum of £20 “to each Seaman or Marine severely wounded” at Trafalgar), and also received prize money of £4 12 shillings and 6 pence as his share of the prize money for the capture of the Berwick at Trafalgar (out of the £300,000 awarded to the Royal Navy for Trafalgar).

Cape Trafalgar is approximately 83 nautical miles south-west of Gibraltar and it took the vessels with wounded men from Nelson’s fleet some time to reach Gibraltar, most of the vessels carrying wounded men being damaged and having to sail through a severe storm, which raged for several days after the battle.

HMS Achilles lost 13 men killed at Trafalgar and also had 59 of her crew wounded during the battle. She arrived at Gibraltar to discharge her casualties in early November 1805, discharging 13 wounded men to shore for treatment at the Gibraltar Naval Hospital on 3rd November and one man on 7th November 1805, the other 45 wounded men not being discharged to shore but instead being treated for their wounds aboard HMS Achilles.

George is not recorded in the Gibraltar Hospital muster of November 1805 as being one of the 14 men discharged to the Hospital from HMS Achilles in November 1805 (ADM 102/232) indicating that he was one of the 145 wounded men from HMS Achilles who had their wounds treated aboard HMS Achilles.

George continued to serve aboard HMS Achilles until he was discharged to the Gibraltar Hospital on 1/9/1810, suffering from syphilis. George was discharged from the Gibraltar Hospital to HMS Fame on 24/01/1811 for passage to the Royal Navy Hospital, Haslar, Gosport, Hampshire, arriving at Haslar on 11/2/1811. He was subsequently discharged to shore, “out of service”, on 18/2/1811, having been victualled (fed) at HMS Haslar for 8 days.

After being discharged from the Royal Navy, Milne returned to Aberdeen, and qualified as a Ship’s Master. The Peterhead marriage register for 1844 records George Milne as a Ship’s Master, who married Ann Smith at Peterhead on 4/11/1844, both George and Ann being recorded in the register as being “in this parish” (both resident in Peterhead prior to their marriage). Milne is recorded in the 1851 census as a 63 year old retired Ship Master resident at Crooked Lane, Peterhead. Milne subsequently fell on hard times, and entered the Peterhead Poorhouse. The Peterhouse Poorhouse Register records George Milne as having been admitted to the poorhouse in 1859, gives his previous place of residence as 9 Ugie Street, Peterhead, and records him as being a widower at the time of admission. The 1861 census records George Milne, aged 73, as being resident at the Poorhouse in Peterhead (recorded in that census by his initials only, “G.M.”, as are the other various individuals resident in the poorhouse at that time). The Peterhead Poorhouse register for January 1865 records George Milne as a seaman by occupation, whose earnings and savings at the time of his death on 16/1/1865 were “none”, Milne being by then totally destitute, with no relative financially able to support him. At the time of his death Milne was a resident of the poorhouse “kept in the poorhouse”, suffering from asthma and infirm. Death certificate records George Milne as having died on 16/1/1865, aged 77, at the Poorhouse, Ugie Street, Peterhead, the widower of Ann Smith, and confirms his parents as George Milne (ship master) and Margaret Milne (maiden name Milne).

Following his death, George Milne was the subject of glowing tributes in a number of newspapers with regard to his distinguished service in the Royal Navy, most of which, including the following biographical sketch, published in the Peterhead Sentinel of 20/1/1865 under the headline “DEATH OF A TRAFALGAR HERO”, mistakenly record Milne as having seen service aboard HMS Victory at Trafalgar rather than aboard HMS Achilles.

“In our obituary today we include the name of one of the last now remaining who fought with Nelson at Trafalgar, viz., George Milne, who died on Monday in the Poorhouse. George was a native of the parish, and came through great vicissitudes of fortune in his day. In his youth he served in the Royal Navy, being present on board the famous “Victory” at the Battle of Trafalgar. On being discharged, George came home, and in a short time became Master and owner of a vessel belonging to Peterhead, in which he made a great deal of money. Giving up the sea for a landsman’s life, he engaged in speculation rather deeply, and was literally ruined in consequence and had, in his old age, to betake himself to that refuge where many honest but unfortunate people have to resort when the frailties of eld render them incapable of working out a livlihood for themselves.”

NOTE: There is a faulty biographical sketch for George Milne on Ancestry, which is a conflation of two men of the same name, a George Milne who was born in Gartley, Aberdeenshire, in 1788, who was recorded in the 1861 census as a head crofter of 5 acres at Aberlour, Banffshire; and the George Milne who was born at West Parish, Aberdeen, in 1788, various records which relate to the latter George Milne being incorporated into the Aberlour crofter George Milne’s biographical sketch (e.g. 1851 census return, retired ship master, resident Peterhead).

Medal accompanied by the following documents relating to George Milne (alias George Miberry).

1) Copies of letters from the Admiralty and Ministry of Defence, Navy Department, Correspondence and Papers, Captain’s Letters (ADM 1/1642) regarding George Milne being pressed at Liverpool in 1805.

2) Copied extracts from the muster roll for HMS Princess for the period January – April 1805 (ADM 36/16434), which confirms that George Milne was a pressed man.

3) Copied extracts muster roll for HMS Friendship for the period April – May 1805 (ADM 36/16157)

4) Copied extracts from the muster roll for HMS Achilles for the period 1st October 1805 to 31st March 1806 (ADM 37/52), confirming that George first saw service with the Royal Navy aboard HMS Friendship and entered HMS Achilles as an Able Bodied Seaman on 9/5/1805 from the receiving ship HMS Salvador del Mundo.

5) Extract quarterly muster book for the Gibraltar Hospital, November to December 1805, extracted from the Gibraltar Muster Book for 1st October 1805 to 31 December 1808 (ADM 102/232), which records a total of 13 wounded men discharged from HMS Achilles to the Gibraltar Hospital on 3rd November and one man on 7th November.

George is not recorded as being one of these men, presumably because he was one of the 11 men from HMS Achilles discharged to the Gibraltar Hospital on 29th October.

6) Allotment Register for HMS Achilles for 1806-1807 (ADM 27/11), which records that George elected to have allotments (deductions) from his pay forwarded to his mother, Margaret, via the Customs Office at Peterhead, from 1/10/1806 onwards.

7) Gibraltar Hospital muster for September 1810 (ADM.MED.HOSP. MUST.233.), which records George entering the hospital at Gibraltar from HMS Achilles on 12/9/1810 suffering from syphilis.

8) Extract Gibraltar Hospital muster, January – March 1811 (ADM 102/233), which records that George was discharged to HMS Fame for transport to the Naval Hospital HMS Haslar, Gosport, Hampshire, on 24/1/1811.

9) Extract from muster and pay book for HMS Fame for February 1811 (ADM 35/3462) which confirms George was discharged from the Gibraltar Hospital to HMS Fame on 24/1/1811 for transport to the Naval Hospital, HMS Haslar.

10) Extract from the muster book for the Royal Naval Hospital, HMS Haslar, for February 1811 (ADM 102/294) which records that George (late HMS Achilles) was received at HMS Haslar from HMS Fame on 11/2/1811 and subsequently discharged to shore, “out of service”, on 18/2/1811.

11) Extract 3rd report of the Committee for managing Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund, confirming George was paid £20 in compensation for wounds received at Trafalgar.

12) Extract London Gazette, 9th-13th September 1806, with details of the prize money awarded for Trafalgar, which confirms that the seamen and marines from HMS Achilles received £4 12 shillings and 6 pence each.

13) Copied extracts medal rolls (original and published) confirming medal and Trafalgar clasp, the original medal roll recording that George Milne’s medal was forwarded to the Military Staff Office in Aberdeen for collection, the medal being named to him as George Miberry, the alias he used while serving with the Royal Navy.

Medal also accompanied by the following documents relating to George Milne:

1) Extract Peterhead Marriage Register, which records George Milne, ship master, as having married Ann Smith at Peterhead on 4/11/1844, the register recording George and Ann being “both in this parish”.

2) Extract 1851 census

3) Extract 1861 census

4) Extract Peterhead Poorhouse register for 16th January 1865

5) Extract Peterhead Deaths Register for January 1865

6) Copy extract from Peterhead Sentinel of 20/1/1865, obituary for George Milne

HMS Achilles saw service at Traflagar in Admiral Collingwood’s column, seventh in the line, between Colossus and Revenge. Achille opened fire on the rear of the French and Spanish fleet at 12.15pm, engaging the 74-gun Montanes for fifteen minutes, before sailing on to meet Argonauta of 80 guns, which had already been engaged with other British ships. After hours of close combat, the Argonauta ceased fire and closed her gunports, but before Achilles could accept her surrender, her French namesake Achille of 74 guns, moved in to engage HMS Achilles. After exchanging broadsides, the French ship sailed on and was replaced on the starboard side by the 74-gun French ship Berwick, and for the next hour and a quarter she lay close alongside HMS Achilles, and after repeated broadsides, Berwick surrendered, with over 250 casualties, almost half her crew. Achilles took the Berwick as a prize, transferring some of her crew back on board as prisoners.

The following more detailed description of HMS Achilles and that ship’s service at the battle of Trafalgar is taken from Colonel Robert Holden Mackenzie’s “The Trafalgar Roll” (George Allen & Co., London, 1913).

The Achilles, frequently but incorrectly called the Achille, for she was never a French prize, but a British built ship, was launched at Cleverley’s Yard, Gravesend, early in 1798. In July 1798 she was commissioned by Captain H. E. Stanhope, who was succeeded in the following April by Captain G. Murray, under whom we find her in Lord Bridports squadron off Rochefort. In the spring of 1805 Captain Richard King was appointed to her. She was with Lord Collingwoods little squadron watching Cadiz, and took part, under Captain King, in the battle of Trafalgar, the 21st October 1805. She was in the lee column and closely followed the Colossus into action and, passing astern of the Spanish Montanes, luffed up and engaged that ship from leeward. When, in about twelve minutes, the Montanez sheered off, the Achilles headed for the Belleisle, which lay dismantled to leeward, seeming to be sorely pressed but on her way she fell in with the Spanish Argonauta. Captain King brought to on he Spaniards port beam, and fought her at close quarters for an hour. The Argonauta then endeavoured to make sail, but not being able to escape shut her lower-deck ports, ceased firing, and, as was supposed, surrendered. Ere the Achilles could attempt to take possession of her, the French Achille passed her namesake and distracted her attention by firing into her and the French Berwick, which had already been distantly engaged with our Defence, interposed herself between the Achilles and her beaten opponent, the latter dropping to leeward and eventually surrendering. A hot action then began between the Achilles and the Berwick the French ship, after more than an hours fighting, hauled down her flag and was taken possession of by Captain King. The loss in the Achille amounted to seventy-two killed and wounded, including nine officers. Her masts, though standing, were badly injured, and also her bowsprit and hull.

During the period between Milne/Miberry’s being discharged from the Gibraltar Hospital in March 1806 and his re-admission to the Gibraltar Hospital in September 1810 from HMS Achilles, that ship took part in the following operations:

With Commodore Sir Samuel Hoods squadron, her boats assisted in the cutting out of the French corvette Caesar, 16 guns, at the entrance of the river Gironde, on the night of the 15th July 1806 and witnessed the capture off Rochefort, on the 24th September following, of the French 40-gun frigates Armide, Minerve, and Gloire. She was also in the expedition to Walcheren. and the blockade of Flushing in the same year, and took part in the blockade of Cadiz of 1810-11.

Between 1811 and 1865, when HMS Achilles was scrapped, she took part in the following operations:

When commanded by Captain Askew P. Hollis, her boats, in conjunction with those of the Cerberus, captured twelve sail of Trabbacolles off Venice, on the 17th July 1812 while in the same month, in conjunction with the Milford, she captured four other vessels, She remained in the service until the year 1865, when she was sold at Sheerness to Messrs. Castle & Sons, shipbreakers, for £3600.

HMS SALVADOR DEL MUNDO was a 112 gun 3 decker ship of the line built for the Spanish navy in 1787. She joined the Royal Navy as a ship of the line after being captured at the battle of Cape St Vincent, 14th February 1797, and saw service with the Royal Navy during the French and Napoleonic wars, from March 1803 onwards as a receiving ship at Plymouth, before finally being scrapped and broken up in February 1815.

HMS FAME, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, was built at Deptford Dockyard, launched on 8 October 1805, was laid up in ordinary at Chatham in 1815 and was broken up in 1817.

THE ROYAL NAVY “RENDEZVOUS” in Liverpool. Royal Navy press gangs operated from what were known as Rendezvous in the ports where they were based, usually inns or taverns close to the harbour, from which the officer in command of the press gangs directed their operations, the building also used to hold pressed men prior to their being transferred to a Royal Navy ship. In 1805 the Royal Navy press gang Rendezvous in Liverpool was located on the waterfront close to the George Dock.

When Naval General Service Medals were named, the naming details for the recipient, for the clasp(s) being claimed, were copied from the muster roll for the ship and action(s) concerned, with the result that men who served using an alias were issued with medals impressed with that alias rather than with their real name. Numerous examples of such medals are known. For a particularly interesting example, see the 2 clasp medal issued to Jacob Eastrim, a Swedish sailor who was born in Gothland, Sweden, in 1790, and saw service with the Royal Navy using the alias “John Rowe”, his medal being issued to him in 1847 impressed “John Rowe” (Noonan’s 17/9/2010, lot 792).

When Milne’s medal was sold by Noonan’s on 2/3/2017 (lot 616) the auctioneer, lacking access to the story behind this medal (George Milne’s having seen service with the Royal Navy using the alias George Miberry), based on the surviving elements of the original naming on the edge of the medal, attributed this medal to an Able Seaman by the name of George Miberry, a man who never was.

The footnote that accompanied this medal when it was sold in 2017 reads as follows: “George Milne does not appear on the published transcription of the medal roll. Of the names that appear on the roll starting with ‘George’ and the first two letters of the surname ‘Mi’, combined with the space left between the end of the surname and where the original full stop is placed on the medal, it is possible that the medal was originally named to ‘George Miberry’. The latter served as an Able Seaman in H.M.S. Achilles at Trafalgar.”

THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS. There is no record of the names George Miberry or George Mibrie in any UK records for the period of George Milne’s lifetime, 1788-1865, apart from when Milne used those names as an alias during the Napoleonic Wars, 1805-1811. The name George Miberry/Mibrie being entirely of George Milne’s invention, the name of a man who never existed.