Beschreibung:

Service papers of Rear Admiral Charles Henry Swinburne RN (1797-1877, father of the poet), comprising his Admiralty commissions as Lieutenant of HM Ship Racoon (1818), Lieutenant of HM Ship Glasgow (1821), Lieutenant of HM Ship Albion (1826), Commander of HM Sloop Ariel (1827), Commander of HM Sloop Rapid (1829), Captain of HM Ship Royal William (1835), and Rear Admiral on the Reserved List (1857), signed by Lord Melville, Sir George Cockburn, Sir Henry Hotham and other Lords of the Admiralty, and counter-signed by Sir John Barrow John Wilson Croker and other Secretaries, with Admiralty seals and duty-stamps, the certificate entering him into the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth (1810); his passing certificate in mathematics and navigation (1816) and seamanship (1817); his certificates as volunteer (1814), able seaman (1814), midshipman (1814), Admiralty Midshipman (1818) and lieutenant (1818); his prize money entitlement certificate (1815); his certificate of enrolment as Admiralty Midshipman (1818) [a scheme introduced that year for deserving veterans to assist in their promotion to lieutenant]; advice notices of his appointment as Admiralty Midshipman in the Tiber, Lieutenant of "the Racoon at St Helena" (1818) and Rear Admiral (1857); acting orders as Admiralty Midshipman of the Tees (1818) and as Lieutenant of the Eurydice (1818); together with service records, Admiralty circulars, printed half-pay instructions, drafts of requests for employment, etc., and a charming watercolour of Captain Swinburne's sloop the Rapid (1831), sent to his mother, Lady Swinburne, all the commissions, except for the last, on vellum, other documents on paper, minor spotting etc., but overall in good fresh condition, in a black lacquer box, lid detached