Item: i104721

Authentic Medal of:

Great Britain
 Admiral Vernon
1739 Pinchbeck (Copper Alloy) Medal Token 36.5mm 
(12.70 grams)
Reference: Cf Betts# 314

THE BRITISH GLORY REV IV ND BV ADMIRAL VERNON A 
VIEW OF FORT CHACE, Standing facing figure of Admiral Vernon in uniform, to left, a 
branch, to right, ships.
HE . TOOK . PORTO . BELLO . WITH . SIX . SHIPS . ONLY NOV.22.1739 ; Fortified port and 6 ships.

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Admiral Edward Vernon (12 November 1684 – 30 October 1757) was a British naval officer. He had a long and distinguished career, rising to the rank of admiral after 46 years service. As a vice admiral during the War of Jenkins’ Ear, in 1739 he was responsible for the capture of Porto Bello, seen as expunging the failure of Admiral Hosier there in a previous conflict. However, his later amphibious operation against Cartagena de Indias suffered a severe defeat. Vernon also served as a Member of Parliament (MP) on three occasions and was out-spoken on naval matters in Parliament, making him a controversial figure.

The origin of the name “grog” for rum diluted with water is attributed to Vernon. He was known for wearing coats made of grogram cloth, earning him the nickname of “Old Grog”, which in turn came to mean the diluted rum that he first introduced into his naval squadron.

War of Jenkins’ Ear

The accumulation of Spanish-British conflicts led to the War of Jenkins’ Ear in 1739, in which Vice Admiral Vernon led a fleet along with Major General Thomas Wentworth. Vernon captured Porto Bello, a Spanish colonial possession, as a result of which he was granted the Freedom of the City of London. However, Vernon’s next campaign against the Spanish, a large-scale assault on Cartagena de Indias in 1741, ended in disaster. After initial success, the British fleet of 186 ships and around 12,000 infantry was defeated by a garrison of 3,500 men and the sailors disembarked from the six ships of the line commanded by the one-eyed, one-legged and one-armed Spanish admiral Blas de Lezo. As disease spread among the British troops, delaying tactics by the Spaniards and a failed assault on the last fortification defending the city led a council of war to decide to abandon the siege and withdraw to Jamaica. The assault was further marred by bitter quarrels with Wentworth. After a further year and a half ineffectually campaigning in the Caribbean, Vernon was recalled back to England to find he had been elected MP for Ipswich.

During the War of Jenkins’ Ear, Vernon was promoted vice admiral of the blue on 9 July 1739 and, as he had prominently spoken for both the war and the Navy, he was given the command of a squadron of six ships assigned to the Jamaica Station.^[1] The Gentleman’s Magazine reported England’s preparations for war against Spain in July 1739, noting that Vernon had been recalled to active duty and promoted; that, on 10 July King George II had instructed the Lords of the Admiralty to prepare Letters of Marque; and (a week after the fact) it reported Vernon and his squadron had sailed for the West Indies on 20 July.

Despite the unmistakable signs of Great Britain preparing for a naval war in the summer of 1739, the formal declaration of war against Spain was not announced in London until Saturday, 23 October 1739.

Great Britain, also known as Britain, is an island in the North Atlantic off the north-west coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km² (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest island in Europe and the ninth-largest in the world. In 2011 the island had a population of about 61 million people, making it the third-most populous island in the world, after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island is the largest in the British Isles archipelago, which also includes the island of Ireland to its west and over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands.

The island is dominated by an oceanic climate with quite narrow temperature differences between seasons. Politically, the island is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constituting most of its territory: most of England, Scotland, and Wales are on the island, with their respective capital cities, London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. The term Great Britain often extends to include surrounding islands that form part of England, Scotland, and Wales.

A single Kingdom of Great Britain resulted from the Union of Scotland and England (which already comprised the present-day countries of England and Wales) in 1707. More than a hundred years before, in 1603, King James VI, King of Scots, had inherited the throne of England, but it was not until 1707 that the Parliaments of the two countries agreed to form a unified state. In 1801, Great Britain united with the neighboring Kingdom of Ireland, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which was renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland after the Irish Free State seceded in 1922.