1023. A NAVAL GENERAL SERVICE MEDAL 1793 - 1840 WITH EGYPT CLASP AND SULTAN'S MEDAL FOR EGYPT TO VICE ADMIRAL RICHARD CURRY CB.

A Naval General Service Medal with Egypt clasp named to RICHARD CURRY, COMMR. R.N., and Sultan's Medal for Egypt, 2nd class (48mm) on short chain and ribbon with suspension bar. Commander Curry is recorded as one of three recipients of the Egypt clasp aboard Bomb Boat H.M.S Fury.
Born in 1772, the son of Thomas Curry, Magistrate from Gosport in Hampshire, he died in 1855 after a long and decorated career. He joined the Navy on the 22nd March 1780 and was on the books of the frigate Amphitrite from this time but not going 'afloat' until 1786 when he joined the Goliath, a guard ship at Portsmouth. Service in various ships and locations including Acteon, Royal George, Barfleur and Iphigenia. He received his commission in March 1794, serving aboard Sans Pareil before being appointed Commander in 'the Fury bomb'. His actions in Egypt are many and are well recorded:

"In the autumn of 1800, he accompanied a detachment of troop-ships to Quiberon Bay and Vigo; from whence he proceeded to Gibraltar, and joined the grand expedition assembled there under Lord Keith and Sir Ralph Abercromby. The debarkation of the British army on the coast of Egypt, having been effected under cover of the Fury, Tartarus, &c. &c. Captain Curry took a position for bombarding the castle of Aboukir, which at length surrendered on the 18th March 1801. In it were found 12 guns, abundance of ammunition, and a garrison of 190 men.
Captain Curry received orders to join the combined flotilla on the Nile, where he was engaged in most active service till the surrender of Grand Cairo.
The castle of St. Julian, to which the French had retired from Rosetta, was defended by fifteen pieces of cannon, and four armed djerms were anchored under the walls. On the 16th April, it was attacked by a division of British and Turkish gun-boats, under the directions of Captain Curry in the Fury’s cutter. The firing commenced at 11h 30' A.M., and was immediately returned by the enemy on shore and afloat. At 1h 10' P.M. Captain Curry observing a French gun-vessel in flames, and drifting to the eastern bank of the river, forced his way past the castle, under a heavy discharge of grape and musketry, in order to save the crew. On boarding the djerm, he found four Arabs with their knives in readiness, anxiously searching for some concealed victim; but fortunately the Frenchmen had all escaped. He had scarcely quitted her again before she blew up. On presenting the pendant which he had struck to the Capitan Pacha, that chieftain expressed the strongest admiration of his conduct, and presented the cutter’s crew with a purse of forty sequins. At 6h A.M. on the 19th the castle surrendered, after an honorable defence. The prisoners taken on this occasion amounted to 268, of whom 160 had recently arrived from France; about 40 of the garrison had been killed and wounded during the siege. Encouraged by this success, the allies determined to press their operations against the enemy in the interior; and with this determination, Major-General Hutchinson arrived in person at Rosetta on the 26th, having left Major-General Coote in command of the army before Alexandria.
Captain Curry had previously taken possession of a djerm, lying alongside the wharf at Rosetta, and added her to the flotilla by the name of the Betsy. In this vessel, armed with a 24-pounder carronade, he proceeded up the Nile; and putting on shore at Montubis, went from thence with Sir W. Sidney Smith, Captain James Hillyar, Colonel Bromley, and other officers, to make a reconnoissance inland. On their return they passed through Berimbal, a considerable village about nine or ten miles above Rosetta, and then along the banks of a canal said to form a communication between the river and Lake Bourlos, but which actually terminates at a place called Sowacanisara, or the Christian’s Well; about a quarter of a mile from which another canal commences arid runs into the lake. At Berimbal they were received by the inhabitants with apparently great joy, the women collecting in a body and setting up a noise somewhat similar to that made at an Irish wake, or rather of a number of English females scolding each other.
On the 26th April, Sir Sidney Smith, accompanied by Captains Morrison, Curry, and Hillyar, leaving their djerms at anchor abreast of Mencet el Mourcheé, proceeded with the armed flat boats and launches to Shimshara, and from the top of a mosque at that place discovered fourteen vessels, part of the enemy’s retreating flotilla, in the direction of Foua, a village then occupied by the republican troops. Returning to their djerms, they visited a sort of school, where girls are taught dancing, &c. to qualify them for the harems of their masters.
The effective force of the allied armies now assembled in the neighbourhood of Rosetta, amounted to between 8000 and 9000 men. On the 27th, three companies of the Queen’s regiment were embarked on board the djerms, and conveyed to Etphiné, from whence the enemy’s advanced post was then distant about two miles.
On the 5th May, the combined force marched along the banks of the Nile to the neigbourhood of Derout, where they encamped in two lines, supported by the flotilla. On the following day, the enemy abandoned a very strong position at El Atph, having previously blown up several gun-boats, and obstructed the navigation by sinking others in a line between the east bank of the river and a small island, opposite El Atph, on which was found a battery of three guns. Captain Curry, who on a former occasion had met with a similar accident, fell overboard and was nearly drowned, whilst employed in removing this obstacle. On the 8th, he conveyed Colonel Stewart, Lord Blaney, the 89th regiment, and a party of dragoons, to the vicinity of Shurafia, at which place the allies were joined by 600 cavalry, sent from the Grand Vizier’s army at Belbeis: these troops were Syrians, almost naked, badly armed, miserably mounted, and totally undisciplined.
At 10 A.M. on the 9th May, Captain Curry, with four flats and three launches, commenced an attack on the enemy’s forts at Rahmanié, and continued in action with them till four P.M., when his division was relieved by the Turkish gun-boats. In this very creditable affair the British had 4 men, including Lieutenant Hobbes of the Delft, killed, and 7 wounded."

Twice honoured with the thanks of Parliament during the Revolutionary Wars, appointed CB in 1831, Richard Curry married in 1804, he and his wife having eleven children, one of which, Robert Murray, was First Lieutenant with the Royal Marines, see the following lot for his medals and subsequent lots for other family items.

Extensive accounts of Curry's exploits are given by John Marshall in the Royal Naval Biography, and William R. O'Byrne Naval Biographical Dictionary.