Crimea Abyssinia Kırım

Trio to Richard Netting

Crimea clasps Azoff and Sebastopol, (R Netting HMS Agamemnon)
Abyssinia (R Netting Bosn HMS Dryad) Turkish Crimea

Netting born Sept 9, 1826 . His place
of birth differs in various documents as
Morice Town of Devonport but be may have
been born in St. Germans Cornwall. He joined
the RN as a boy aboard HMS San Josef as a
12 year old claiming to be 14 and while aboard
HMS Calliope, he earned a China 1842 medal
still rated as a boy. He joined Agamemnon in
1852 and earned a two clasp Crimea medal and
while aboard HMS Dryad as a Bosun he earned
his Abyssinia medal.

He progressed from OS to AB and then held
several PO roles until being promoted to Bosn
3rd class 1859 and 1st class 1872. Netting was
noted for conspicuous activity at the loss of
HMS Driver on Mariguana Island Aug 1861. In
Jun 1868, he  was recommended for promotion
by Commodore Heath for service during the
Abyssinia Campaign.
Married at least twice, the second time to 21-year-old Martha Badcock in Sheerness in 1860, they had at least one child
Martha Jane. Netting retired after 40 years in January 1879 and died 7th Jul 1890 in Saltash Cornwall leaving an estate of
£42.


During his long career he saw the four corners of the world and he would have served with some well known naval men. On
America he would have served with Peel who led the Naval Brigade in the Indian Mutiny and on HMS Maeander, he served under
Captain (later Admiral of the Fleet) Henry Keppel.  He also had an indirect connection with the Napoleonic War in that his first
ship HMS San Josef  was captured from the Spanish Navy at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on 14 February 1797 (when she
was still named in Spanish San José) and in 1809 served as the flagship of Admiral John Thomas Duckworth.

His service record can be summarized as follows:

San Josef October 15, 1838- July 26, 1839
Calliope 27 July 1839- 16 March 1843
Caledonia 16 March 1843- 19 July 1843
America 20 July 1843- 20 October 1847
Maeander 26 November 1847-7 August 1851
Rosamund 31 October 1851-1 December 1852
Agamemnon 13 December 1852- 12 July 1856
Maeander 1 May 1857- 31 August 1857
Driver 16 May 1861-28 August 1861
Clinker 21 December 1861- 26 February 1867
Dryad 27 February 1867- 1 February 1872
Aurora 9 December 1872- 3 September1873
Daedalus 25 July 1874-31 July 1877

Although slightly more than 2,000 Azoff clasps were issued, more than 95% of them were awarded to men who were to receive
an unnamed medal. The exceptions to this lie in a small number (less than 40) medals to men on loan from certain ships later to
have their medals impressed (RODNEY, WASP and NIGER) and semi officially punched (AGAMEMNON) and in addition, two
launches from AGAMEMNON each armed with a 12pdr Howitzer took part on the attack on Taranog on June  3  1855 and the
56 men from those launches received the Azoff clasp to their medals in the particular naming style of AGAMEMNON. Richard
Netting as Coxwain of the second launch was one of those men.

Although 14,000 Abyssinia medals were issued, the vast majority was issued to the Army. A little less than 1,750 Abyssinia
medals were issued to the RN and of those 141 were awarded to HMS Dryad.

Netting’s Turkish Crimea shows a different pattern of wear which suggests to me that it may not be the original but as with all
unnamed medals this can only be speculation.