A NAVAL OFFICER'S SWORD, PROSSER, MAKER TO H.R.H. THE KING, THE LORD HIGH ADMIRAL, CHARING CROSS,

A NAVAL OFFICER'S SWORD, PROSSER, MAKER TO H.R.H. THE KING, THE LORD HIGH ADMIRAL, CHARING CROSS, CIRCA 1828, PROBABLY THAT OF WILLIAM, 8TH EARL WALDEGRAVE (1788-1859) of regulation type, with pipe-backed blade formed with a pronounced hatchet point, etched with the crowned Royal arms, fouled anchor and the maker's details at the forte, gilt copper alloy hilt with fouled anchor and fixed side-guard, wire-bound sharkskin-covered grip with the Royal arms on the front and the owner's arms including a label of three points on the reverse, sword knot (worn), in its copper alloy mounted leather scabbard (seam opening), with signed locket, two rings for suspension and two belt mounts, 77.8 cm blade Provenance Montague Waldegrave, 5th Baron Radstock (1867-1953) The arms are those of the Earls of Waldegrave, almost certainly William, 8th Earl Waldegrave (1788-1859). Waldegrave entered the Royal Navy as a first-class boy on board the Theseus, August 1801 then, two years afterwards having attained the rating of midshipman went to the Medusa and was in that vessel when its Captain, Sir John Gore, captured three Spanish frigates laden with treasure, and destroyed a fourth, off Cape St. Mary, in 1804. Waldegrave became a Lieutenant on the 29th of July, 1806, and was appointed to the famous Ville de Paris, 110 guns, bearing the flag of the illustrious Lord Collingwood, and forming part of the squadron with which his Lordship was clearing the seas of the remains of the enemy after the victory of Trafalgar. Waldegrave behaved so well at the destruction of the French armed store-ships, defended by numerous strong batteries, in the Bay of Rosas, that he was mentioned with high commendation in Lord Collingwood’s public letter, and he bore the despatches home. In March 1809, when Waldegrave was serving in the Mediterranean as a lieutenant under Lord Collingwood, his mother, niece to George III by her own mother’s second marriage, reminded the King of a promise, made in 1789 on the death of her husband, ‘that my children should never want a father while you lived’, and requested his intervention to secure her son’s advancement. The late Lord Cornwallis wrote to her 'I have the satisfaction to assure you that William is a most promising youth, and that it is the opinion not only of his superior officers but likewise of his contemporaries, that he will make a distinguished figure in his profession.’ He was promoted to the rank of commander at the end of the year after distinguishing himself in action in the Bay of Rosas, and later served as a captain on the Lisbon station. Waldegrave commanded the Revenge at the siege of Acre in 1840; and was in 1841 senior officer in the Bay of Tunis, with the Ganges, and the Implacable. He was pensioned from the vessel in 1842, and returned to England in March of the same year. On the 1st of October, 1846, he accepted the rank of Retired Rear-Admiral. During September of that year, he succeeded his nephew to become Eighth Earl Waldegrave.