The exceptional China First Opium War, Second Burma War Pegu Campaign, Crimean War Sebastopol and Inkerman Naval Brigade ‘Diamond’ Battery, and Abyssinia Expedition group awarded to Bosun’s Mate John Shorter, Royal Navy. From Chatham, Kent, and saw service in the Royal Navy near enough continuously between April 1837 and April 1868, some 30 years, and becoming the recipient of a rare combination of campaign awards in the process. After anti-slavery operations off the West Coast of Africa under Commander the Honourable Joseph Denman, he saw service in the brig-sloop H.M.S Wanderer in Chinese waters during the First Opium War, when she was most actively engaged. He was with the frigate H.M.S Cleopatra at Rangoon participating in the Second Anglo-Burmese War in the Pegu campaign during 1853. It was however in the following two years that he was involved in the Crimean War, when part of the crew of the frigate H.M.S Diamond, under its famous commander, Captain (later Sir) William Peel, V.C., K.C.B., he served ashore with the naval brigade, and manned the guns of the ‘Diamond’ Battery during the siege of Sebastopol from October 1854, and famously at the battle of Inkerman on 5 November 1854, when his commanding officer, performed the first of three actions which led to his award of the Victoria Cross, in throwing a live Russian shell over the parapet of the battery. Later as Bosun’s Mate of the frigate H.M.S Octavia, he saw service during the Abyssinian Expedition of 1867-1868.
Group of 5: China Medal 1842, fitted with the original German silver suspension; (JOHN SHORTER, H.M.S. WANDERER.); India General Service Medal 1849-1895, 1 Clasp: Pegu; (JOHN SHORTER. A.B. “CLEOPATRA”); Crimea Medal 1854-1856, 2 Clasps: Inkermann, Sebastopol; unnamed as issued to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines; Turkish Crimea Medal 1855, British issue, unnamed as issued to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines; Abyssinia Medal 1867-1868; (BOS: MATE J. SHORTER H.M.S. OCTAVIA), all with the remnants of their original ribbons.
Condition: light contact wear, third with a heat mark on rim at 4 o’clock, overall Good Very Fine.
Together with the son’s Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, Victoria issue, impressed naming; (5829. SERGT: J. SHORTER, RL. ENGINEERS)
Condition: Good Very Fine.
John Shorter was born on 29 January 1824 in Chatham, Kent, and originally joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 12 April 1837 for service aboard the three gun schooner H.M.S Skipjack, which was then on service on the West Indies Station under Lieutenant John James Robinson. He was paid off her on 17 December 1828, and then joined the 20 gun sloop H.M.S Nimrod on 24 December 1838, which vessel was then on service in the Atlantic under Commander Charles Anstruther Barlow. He was paid off her on 22 August 1839, and then joined the 16 gun brig sloop H.M.S Wanderer on 24 November 1839, serving under Commander the Honourable Joseph Denman on the West Africa Squadron, engaged in the Anti-Slavery operations.
On 5 April 1840, the Wanderer's boats seized the American slaver Eliza Davidson, which was subsequently condemned in British and Spanish Mixed Commission Court at Sierra Leone. On 12 May, Denman took the Josephina, a Portuguese schooner fitted for the slave trade, as a prize. On 3 June, he took the schooner São Paolo de Loando as prize. On 9 June he took another schooner fitted for the slave trade, the Maria Rosaria. On 3 July he took the Pombinha, out of Havana, and fitted for the slave trade; on 29 December 1842, a prize court awarded Wanderer's crew a tonnage bounty and moiety of proceeds for Pombinha.
In 1840, while negotiating for the release of two Britons, Denman also negotiated a treaty abolishing the slave trade in the territory of the Gallinas, liberating 841 slaves. At the same time, he destroyed the barracoons (large slave-holding depots) on the banks of the river. The Admiralty initially praised his actions and promoted him to Captain in August 1841, and he left Wanderer on 23 August by which time she was in Chinese waters.
Lord Palmerston stated, "Taking a wasp’s nest…is more effective than catching the wasps one by one". However, the Spanish slavers sued him personally for damages. By 1842 the Admiralty had banned the anti-slavery squadron's policy of blockading rivers and the destruction of property. For his role in this action, Denman, his crew and others later received a Parliamentary grant, in Denman's case of over £558.
During this period, Shorter was advanced to Boy 1st Class on 4 June 1841. Commander Edward Norwich Troubridge had assumed command of Wanderer on 23 August 1841, by which time she was on service in China, where she participated in the First Opium War. As such, Shorter was aboard her during the operations in the Pearl River at the capture of Amoy in the Pearl River on 26 August 1841, the capture of Chusan on 1 October 1841, the capture of Chinhai on 10 October 1841, the capture of Ningpo on 13 October 1841. Wanderer was then present when the Chinese counter-attack at Ningpo was repulsed on 10 March 1842, and was at the capture of Chapu on18 May 1842. With the forces under Admiral Sir William Parker, Shorter was present with Wanderer at the capture of Shanghai on 19 June 1842, the capture of Chinkiang on 21 July 1842, and was with the naval forces present when the war came to an end and the Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842. Shorter was one of 106 members of the crew of H.M.S Wanderer to be awarded the China Medal 1842.
Paid off Wanderer on 27 June 1844, he was rated as a Seaman Rigger when he joined H.M. Dockyard at Chatham on 8 October 1844, and he transferred aboard the 110 gun first rate ship of the line, H.M.S Queen on 22 April 1845 as an Ordinary Seaman, and he was then rated as an Able Seaman on 24 October 1845. He would serve in home waters aboard her until 24 February 1847, when he was admitted to Stonehouse Hospital. On his recovery, Shorter joined the 16 gu brig sloop H.M.S Arab from 4 September 1847, and having been paid off her on 265 June 1848, the next day joined the paddle sloop H.M.S Devastation, but was then admitted to Haslar Hospital on 11 September 1848. it is unlikely that he found himself ashore and unemployed for the entirety of the next few years, and in all probability he joined the merchant service, and quite possible sailed for the Far East which is where he then rejoined the naval service. .
Shorter returned to naval service as an Able Seaman aboard the 26 gun frigate H.M.S Cleopatra on 2 May 1852, this vessel being then under the command of Captain Thomas Lecke Massie and based at Hong Kong. Cleopatra has just returned from an engagement with the Sulu pirates on the coast of Borneo. In early 1853 the captain, officers, and crew had an obelisk erected in the Hong Kong cemetery to commemorate those lost on the Tunku River expedition. The ship left Hong Kong on 10 March 1853. Cleopatra was ordered to Burma, arriving at Rangoon on 5 April. She remained in Burmese waters till May, participating in the Second Anglo-Burmese War and receiving battle honours. Some 235 India General Service medals with the clasp Pegu were awarded for these operations.
Paid off Cleopatra on 28 September 1853, he then joined the 28 gun frigate H.M.S Diamond from 27 October 1853, when rated as a Leading Seaman. Diamond was then famously under the command of Captain William Peel, who would win the Victoria Cross for three equal acts of gallantry during the Crimean War .
Not long after joining Diamond, Shorter was appointed to the Petty Officer’s rank of Captain of the After-Guard on 19 February 1854, and with the outbreak of the Anglo-Russian War in the Crimea, Shorter sailed aboard Diamond for the Black Sea. He was for some reason disrated to Able Seaman on 2 June 1854.
Shorter then saw service ashore in the Crimea as one of the 1020 officers and men who formed the Naval Brigade, and manning the guns in front of Sebastopol from October 1854.
Lord Raglan had asked the Navy for assistance during the land operations. Initially the sailors contributed a non-combatant role but as more soldiers were either killed or wounded, they were replaced by the sailors. The guns that were manned by Captain Peel and the men of the naval brigade volunteers from H.M.S Diamond, were named the ‘Diamond’ Battery, with those guns having also been removed from the frigate for service ashore.
By the 7th October, the Naval Brigade had constructed and manned two gun batteries facing Sebastopol, mounting 32-pounder, 68-pounder and Lancaster guns from the ships, dragging them by hand up the hillsides from the harbour. The naval guns took part in the great bombardment of Sebastopol that began on 17th October. The next day, the horses drawing the ammunition wagon for the Diamond's battery refused to face the heavy Russian fire. Volunteers went to clear the wagon and bring up the ammunition. Before the powder could be stowed in the magazine a 42-pounder Russian shell with its fuse burning fell in the middle of the powder-cases and the volunteers unloading them. Hearing the shouts of alarm, Captain Peel sprang to the shell, clasped it against his chest and carried it thus until he could throw it over the parapet. The shell burst almost as soon as it left Peel's hands but fortunately no one was injured. The 18th October 1854 then is the first date on his Victoria Cross, but he would go on to perform two further acts of gallantry, each alone meriting the Victoria Cross. It is interesting to note that in the early days of the siege our men were paid for each Russian shot that they salvaged so that they could be fired back again, obviously that one of Peel's would not have counted!
On 5th November, during the Battle of Inkerman, the Duke of Cambridge with some of his staff and about a hundred men were grouped around the colours of the Grenadier Guards in a place called the Sandbag Battery, which was an emplacement some 30 feet wide with embrasures for two guns.Unknown to them their retreat had been cut off by the enemy, and two more Russian battalions were advancing from their left. Peel saw what was happening through his field glasses and made his way through the smoke and mist to warn the Duke's party. One of the officers later recounted that he noticed that Peel was wearing "a tall glazed hat" and was accompanied by his ADC, Midshipman Daniel, riding a pony! Thanks to Peel's warning the Guardsmen made a strategic withdrawal. The 5th November 1854 then is the second date recorded in his Victoria Cross citation, he having saved the Colours and the Duke of Cambridge.
Peel’s Aide de Camp, the young Midshipman who accompanied him to alert the Grenadier Guards and the Duke of Cambridge was another officer from H.M.S. Diamond, namely Edward St John Daniel. He would also win the Victoria Cross, this for an action in saving the wounded Captain Peel, an event which occurred on the third date that Peel earned his Victoria Cross, namely during the attack on the Great Redan at Sebastopol on 18 June 1855.
On the 18th June 1855, the final date shown on Peel’s Victoria Cross, and the fortieth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the British and French, this time fighting side by side, attempted to take by storm the massive fortress of the Redan at Sebastopol. The attacks were not properly co-ordinated, and the Redan was very strongly defended. The attacker's, amongst whom were many from the Naval Brigade with scaling ladders, had to run some way across open ground under heavy fire. There were many casualties among the bluejackets, and Peel, who had led the first scaling party to the very foot of the Redan wall, was himself hit and severely wounded in the arm. He was led back, half fainting with loss of blood, by Daniel who, according to Midshipman Evelyn Wood of H.M.S Queen, also Peel's ADC (and a future Victoria Cross winner during the Indian Mutiny), was the only one of several naval officers in the assault unwounded. Peel won his Victoria Cross and also recommended both his young midshipmen for the award but only Daniel was awarded it. Evelyn Wood's Victoria Cross was won later during the Indian Mutiny, after he had transferred to the Army.
Both Peel and Daniel would have their Victoria Crosses published in the London Gazette for 24 February 1857, and Peel had in the meantime been appointed Aide de Camp to Queen Victoria and been knighted as a Knight Commander of the Military Division of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath. He died of disease whilst commanding the naval brigade during the Indian Mutiny as is buried at Cawnpore.
For his part, Able Seaman Shorter was ashore with the ‘Diamond’ Battery in the Crimea, and operated ashore in the siege and bombardment of Sebastopol from October 1854 through 1855, and is confirmed as having been present at the Battle of Inkerman on 5 November 1854, when Captain Peel performed the first action which led to his award of the Victoria Cross.
Whilst in the Crimea, Shorter had found himself promoted to Captain of the Foretop on 14 May 1855, and he was then appointed to Captain of the Maintop on 23 September 1855. Whilst ashore in the Crimea, Peel had handed over command of H.M.S Diamond to Captain Cospatrick Baillie Hamilton on 15 January 1855, and with the conclusion of the duties ashore, Shorter, under this officer, sailed back to the Mediterranean where he remained until discharged ashore at home on 18 February 1857.
Shorter then joined the crew of the 131 gun first rate ship of the line, H.M.S Marlborough, on or around March 1857, and seeing service as a Bosun’s Mate. This was only a brief posting, and on the date of his volunteering for a further seven years ‘Continuous Service’ on 24 July 1857, he had joined the 51 gun heavy frigate H.M.S. Chesapeake. She was the flagship of Commodore Rundle Burges Watson, and bound for the East Indies and China Station. Aboard her, Shorter saw service as a Bosun’s Mate, a position held by a senior seaman rating, responsible for overseeing deck seamanship, upper-deck maintenance, anchoring and mooring, whose role was crucial to painting the ships upper deck appearance and operational readiness, was responsible for piping senior officers aboard, and was the link between the officers and junior ratings. Commodore Watson resigned his position owing to ill health in May 1858, and command passed to Acting Captain George Henry Parkin until Commodore Harry Edmond Edgell assumed command in late October 1858. Chesapeake would in 1860 see service in China during the Second Opium War, however Shorter found himself posted off her and transferred for service as Bosun’s Mate aboard the six gun gun-vessel H.M.S Roebuck from 1 March 1859, when commanded by Acting Commander Edwin Charles Symons and then Commander Francis Marten, and operating in the Red Sea. In September 1859 she left the Red Sea and sailed out to the East Indies, and it was in this period that Shorter once again found himself disrated back to Able Seaman on 24 December 1859, this despite his conduct being rated as ‘Good’.
Shorter was transferred from Roebuck to the 131 gun first rate ship of the line, H.M.S Marlborough as an Able Seaman on 4 January 1861, when she was commanded by Captain William Houston Stewart, and serving in the Mediterranean as flagship to Vice-Admiral William Fanshawe Martin. He was re-appointed as a Bosun’s Mate on 16 May 1861, but then disrated to Leading Seaman on 19 January 1862, and to Able Seaman on 9 December 1863, this latter demotion owing to his having been admitted to prison on that same date where he remained until 5 January 1864, when he continued his service aboard the warship. At this time, Marlborough was still in the Mediterranean, but now command by Captain Charles Fellowes, and flagship to Vice-Admiral Robert Smart. Shorter was discharged ashore from Marlborough in September 1864 when she had returned to home waters.
As an Able Seaman, Shorter then joined the 51 gun screw frigate H.M.S Octavia from 22 March 1865, at which time this vessel was just completing her conversion in Portsmouth Dockyard from sail to screw propulsion. On her recommissioning on 14 June 1865, she was to be commanded by Captain Charles Farrell Hillyar, and then saw service on the East Indies and Cape of Good Hope Station. Hillyer was promote4d to Commodore and Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies and Cape of Good Hope Station on 26 September 1865, with Shorter having been re-appointed to Bosun’s Mate back on 15 June 1865, and received his discharge letter on 15 June 1867, only to be immediately re-employed..
On 29 July 1867 Commodore Hillyer was superseded by Commodore Leopold George Heath as commanding officer of Octavia and as Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies and Cape of Good Hope Station. Captain Colin Andrew Campbell then took command of Octavia for service under Commodore Heath from 16 September 1867.
As Bosun’s Mate of Octavia, Shorter was aboard her when present during the Abyssinian Expedition which lasted from December 1867 to May 1868. The expedition sent to the East African nation of Abyssinia, now known as Ethiopia, occurred after several European citizens had been taken hostage by the self-appointed 'King' Emperor Tewodros II in 1864. In March 1866 a British envoy had been despatched to secure the release of a group of missionaries who had first been seized after the British Government refused Tewdros’s requests for military assistance.
In early January 1868, the expedition started from the advance camp at Senafe at the beginning of February. It took two months to reach their objective, advancing through rough terrain. In his despatch to London Lord Napier reported: Yesterday morning (we) descended three thousand nine hundred feet to Bashilo River and approached Mandala with 'First Brigade' to reconnoiter it. Theodore opened fire with seven guns from outwork, one thousand feet above us, and three thousand five hundred men of the garrison made a gallant sortie which was repulsed with very heavy loss and the enemy driven into Magdala. British loss, twenty wounded.
As the British force moved on to Magdala, Tewodros II sent two of the hostages on parole to offer terms. Napier insisted on the release of all the hostages and an unconditional surrender. Tewodros refused to cede to the unconditional surrender, but did release the European hostages. The British continued the advance and assaulted the fortress. The native hostages were later found to have had their hands and feet cut off before being sent over the edge of the precipice surrounding the plateau. Magdala fell on 17th April 1868 after a brief siege and then storming.
During this period, Octavia was Commodore Heath’s flagship, with Heath having charge of all naval operations in relation to the Abyssinian Expedition. Bosun’s Mate Shorter was one of 611 officers, seamen and marines from Octavia subsequently qualified for the Abyssinia Medal 1867-1868.
Shorter received his final discharge latter from Octavia on 18 March 1868, and was discharged from the service on 9 April 1868.
His son, James Shorter, was born in Chatham, Kent, and having worked as a miner, he then joined the British Army at Rochester on 24 November 1858, joining as a Sapper (No.5829) the Royal Engineers. He went on to serve for 21 years and 72 days with the Colours, of which eight years and 93 days were spent overseas, with 5 years 329 days in Saint Helena, 222 days at Mauritius, and 1 year and 272 days at the Cape of Good Hope.
Promoted to 2nd Corporal on 1 February 1867, and to Corporal on 1 March 1869, he re-engaged at Fort Beaufort on 18 May 1869, and was promoted to Sergeant on 1 February 1872, before being discharged on 24 February 1880. His Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is confirmed as his sole entitlement.
