Egypt War Medal 1882-89

Obverse: Head of Queen Victoria in a diadem and veil (left) Legend: 'VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX'. Reverse: the sphinx on an ornamental platform. Legend: 'EGYPT'. Exergue: '1882'. Bar: 'ALEXANDRIA 11TH JULY'. Inscription on edge: 'J. BEAL. W.R.STEWD. H.M.S. ALEXANDRA'. Suspended from a clasp and blue ribbon with two white stripes.

James Beal (1849-1919) – the date of birth on his service record 1 March 1847 is likely to be incorrect. His father, also James Beal was a pensioner of the Royal Marine Artillery. The younger James Beal entered the Royal Navy on 1 January 1873 rated as a ‘Domestic’ or steward in wooden steam corvette HMS ‘Scout’. In the following year, she formed part of a scientific expedition to Hawai’I under Captain Ralph Peter Cator. Beal left he when she was paid off at Sheerness and joined ‘Black Prince’ in August 1875. Following a refit, she was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir John Dalrymple Hay in the Channel. Beal was in the troopship ‘Euphrates’ from December 1877 to March 1878 and from October 1878 to June 1879 in ‘Thunderer’. This ironclad turret ship ran aground in the Mediterranean in November 1878 and suffered a gun explosion in January the following year. Beal’s next longer period of service was in HMS ‘Alexandra’ from March 1880 to January 1883. During this time, she was the flagship of Admiral Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby also in the Mediterranean. The 1881 census shows him rated captain’s steward on this vessel. The ship was present at the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882. Beal was back in British water in ‘Hecla’ from April 1883. He returned to the Mediterranean briefly in HMS ‘Neptune’ but was shipped back to England in May 1885. He was invalided out of the service in September 1887 and lived in the Portsmouth area on his naval pension and payment for gardening work.

He was married to Matilda and the couple had four children. His eldest daughter Amy Alexandra Melita Beal, was born in Malta in about 1883, the other three in Portsmouth.