10:18am Monday 26th July 2010
By Journal Reporter
A MEDAL awarded to a Salisbury boy who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar when Lord Nelson was killed has been sold for £5,760 at auction.
James Folley had been in the Royal Navy for just six months when Britain’s great naval hero was killed.
Now, 200 years later, a silver medal awarded to Folley for his brief naval career - one of the shortest in Wiltshire’s history – has been sold to a collector at Spink in Bloomsbury, London on Thursday .
Folley had to wait more than 40 years to collect his Naval General Service 1793-1840 medal with its sought-after Trafalgar clasp as the medal was not introduced until 1847.
Folley was born in Salisbury and that he joined the Royal Navy in July 1805, serving as Boy Third Class in HMS Defence at the Battle of Trafalgar.
He survived the battle in which 2,576 men lost their lives.
His medal, which is silver and features an image of the young Queen Victoria, was among 94 Naval General Service 1793-1840 medals sold at the auction, making more than half a million pounds.
The collection is regarded as the finest of its kind to come to auction.
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