John Edmund Commerell

On the night of October 11, 1855, Commander John Edmund Commerell led a night landing party from the steam gun vessel HMS Weser onto the Crimean shore of the Sea of Azov. Accompanied by Quartermaster William Thomas Rickard, Able Seaman George Milestone, and two crew members, Commerell brought a small boat to the Spit of Arabat. Leaving two men to guard the craft, the three sailors hauled their boat across the narrow land spit into the Sivash, rowed across the marshy waters to the Crimean mainland, and landed near the mouth of the Salghir River.

Moving two and a half miles inland on foot, the team forded the Kara-su and Salghir rivers to locate a Russian military supply depot. The objective consisted of a magazine containing four hundred tons of corn and forage stacked along the riverbanks, situated adjacent to a guardhouse and within view of an encampment of twenty to thirty mounted Cossacks. Commerell, Rickard, and Milestone set fire to the stacks. The resulting fire alerted the guard post, initiating an immediate rifle engagement and cavalry pursuit.

During the retreat to the coast, Seaman Milestone became physically exhausted and collapsed. Commerell and Rickard carried Milestone across the open terrain while under continuous fire from pursuing Cossacks, bringing him safely to the boat. The party re-embarked and reached HMS Weser, with lookouts subsequently confirming the destruction of the forage magazine.

The conduct of Commerell and Rickard was published in the London Gazette on February 24, 1857. The official citation recorded:

"When commanding the 'Weser,' in the Sea of Azov, crossed the Isthmus of Arabat, and destroyed large quantities of forage on the Crimean shore of the Sivash."

Commerell was born in Grosvenor Square, London, on January 13, 1829, the son of John William Commerell and Sophia Bosanquet. Educated at Clifton College, he entered the Royal Navy in March 1842 as a first-class volunteer. Assigned to HMS Cornwallis, he served in Chinese waters during the closing actions of the First Opium War. Transferring to the paddle frigate HMS Firebrand on the South America Station, Midshipman Commerell saw action on November 20, 1845, at the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, where Anglo-French forces engaged Argentine river batteries on the Paraná River during the Uruguayan Civil War.

Following promotion to lieutenant in December 1848, Commerell was posted to the frigate HMS Vulture in February 1854, serving in the Baltic Sea upon the outbreak of the Crimean War. In February 1855, he assumed command of HMS Weser. After recovering from a shipboard fire near Constantinople, Weser joined the naval bombardment of Sevastopol in June 1855 before detaching to the Sea of Azov to interdict enemy logistics.

Promoted to commander in September 1855, Commerell transferred to HMS Snake in February 1856. Serving in the Mediterranean during the inaugural Victoria Cross investiture at Hyde Park in June 1857, he received his medal on station in China later that year from his ship's commanding officer. During the Second Opium War, Commerell commanded a division of the naval brigade during the assault on the Taku Forts in June 1859, sustaining casualties before withdrawing.

Promoted to captain in July 1859, Commerell commanded HMS Magicienne in the Far East and HMS Scorpion at Portsmouth. In May 1869, he took command of the turret ironclad HMS Monarch. In late 1869, Monarch was tasked with the transatlantic transport of the remains of American financier and philanthropist George Peabody from Portsmouth to the United States.

In February 1871, Commerell was promoted to commodore second class and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station, hoisting his broad pennant in HMS Rattlesnake. During the Third Anglo-Ashanti War in August 1873, while conducting a boat reconnaissance on the Prah River, Commerell was severely wounded in an ambush.

Commerell subsequently attained flag rank, serving as Vice-Admiral Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station aboard HMS Northampton from 1882 to 1885, and later as Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. He served in Parliament as a Member of the House of Commons representing Southampton. Appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in June 1887 and Groom in Waiting to Queen Victoria in January 1892, he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on February 14, 1892. He retired in January 1899 and died at his London home on May 21, 1901, being interred in Cheriton Road Cemetery, Folkestone, Kent.