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Description:
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Naval Gold medal (Captain's) for the Battle of the Trafalgar, 1805. Obverse: Britannia, a spear in her left hand and a shield below, standing on the deck of an antique galley, her right foot resting on a helmet, crowned with a wreath by a winged victory. Inscription on reverse: 'CHARLES JOHN MOORE MANSFIELD CAPTAIN OF H.M.S. MINOTAUR ON THE 21 OCTOBER MDCCCV THE COMBINED FLEETS OF FRANCE AND SPAIN DEFEATED'. In original circular red case.
Mansfield was christened at Stoke Damerel, Devon and after entering the Navy was commissioned Lieutenant in 1778. In ‘Albion’ he took part in four actions in the West Indies during the American War of Independence. By the end of the war he was acting as 1st Lieutenant but seems to have been on half pay until 1790. He was promoted to Post Captain, while in command of the sloop ‘Magaera’. His next commands were in frigates and in ‘Andromache’ captured a North African corsaire. In ‘Minotaur’ he took part in the battle of the Nile in 1798. At Trafalgar together with ‘Spartiate’, she captured the Spanish ‘Neptuno’. He was third in command at the second battle of Copenhagen in 1807. He died in 1813 and is buried at Rochester in Kent.
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