Naval General Service, clasp Boat Service 27 Sept. 1810,
John Couche, 1st. Lieut , R.M.
N.B. We understand the R.M. Museum hold a medal also attributed to John Couche though unknown whether with rank or unit. This medal however is fully impressed with rank and R.M. and lovely crisp condition. (see photos).
On the night of September 27th 1810, three French brigs lay under a strong battery on Pointe du Che, in Basque Road. They were further protected by four field-pieces on the beach, and by a considerable force of cavalry and infantry. It was determined to attack them, and, with that object, the boats of the Caledonia, 120, flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Harry Burrard Neale, Bart., Valiant, 74, Captain Robert Dudley Oliver, and Armide, 38, Captain Richard Calling Dunn, were sent in under Lieutenant Arthur Philip Hamilton. In the small hours of the 28th, a body of Royal Marines, under Captains Thomas Sherman and Archibald M’Lachlan, R.M., Lieutenants John Coulter and John Couche, R.M., and Lieutenant Robert John Little, R.M.A., was landed by the boats. The battery was quickly carried; the guns were spiked; the French troops were charged and deprived of one of their field-pieces; and, in the meantime, the seamen took two of the brigs and destroyed the third. The entire force was then withdrawn, with a loss of but two (including Lieutenant Little) wounded. The French had 14 killed in the battery alone.
‘The Royal Navy : a history from the earliest times to the present Vol V.William Laird Clowes,’ refers.
John Couche, b. 1783, died 1853, Plymouth, St. Andrew, Devon.
The 1851 Census records aged 68, res. East Stonehouse, Devon and b. Liskeard, Cornwall
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