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| Review of the Fleet at Spithead by the Queen, April 23, 1856 |
On Wednesday, 23 April 1856 (St. George's Day) a "Great Naval Review", by Queen Victoria, of the fleet being prepared for the 1856 Baltic campaign was held at Spithead to celebrate the end of the war - The Russian (Crimean War) War of 1854 - 1856. To discover that one of my relatives had served in that war and took part in the Fleet Review of 1856 was something: to find that there were two of them there, one each from my father's side of the family and the other from my mother's side was a major surprise.
My 2x great-grandfather on my father's side, Thomas Jones, was at the Spithead Review, serving as a Petty Officer on HMS Duke of Wellington.
James Henry Tubb, meanwhile, who was the nephew of Edward Tubb whose daughter married into a branch of my mother's family, had also served during that war, both in the Black Sea, as well as in the Baltic, and was also present at the Fleet Review aboard HMS Nile (1839).
HMS Duke of Wellington was at the head of the Port line, while, this report on the Review in the The Illustrated London News, 26 April 1856 adds, "Abreast of the Port line the Royal George led the Starboard, gigantic in proportions as the Duke, if not as elegant in form. Then came the Nile.
So both sides of my family were represented, on both sides of the line, almost side-by-side. (It was even more of a surprise when I found a third.)