MICHELLE HIGGS is a writer who specialises in social history and family history
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SIMON WILLS is a genealogist and wrote Tracing Your Seafaring Ancestors
Was Thomas Davis involved in the First Opium War?
Q Thomas Davis (baptised in 1822, Bristol) was the brother of my 4x great grandmother, Susannah Davis. His middle name may have been Gardener. Their parents (née Racket).
Susannah was convicted of larceny in 1843 and in one related record she mentions that Thomas junior is in China, and in another that he is on board the Belleisle. I believe he was involved in the First China War, and have found his name on Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk) in a list of naval medals awarded on 21 July 1842. However, it is crossed out with “DD [discharged dead] 11 January 1843” beside it. I can't find his name in the death indexes, nor in any other navy records online.
