Hi Rebecca

As you rightly say William served during the Crimean War on HMS Royal George as an able-seaman (ships No.8). I have been singularly unsuccessful in downloading one of the earlier CG Establishment Books, but I have reconstructed his service career from 1837. On 22 April 1837 he appears to have been transferred from Hastings to Portreath where he remained until 15 Sept 1848 when he was removed to St Agnes (ADM 175/7 pdf 538). On 26th July 1850 he was promoted to a Commissioned Boatman and transferred to Coverack (ADM 175/7 pdf 539). He remained at this station until being superannuated on 31 July 1865 (ADM 175/33 pdf 51).

According to my database he was born in Dover and I have a birth date of 20 June 1811, I can only assume I got this from his Merchant Seaman's Ticket on FMP (Ticket No. 250260), but the later CG records have his date of birth as 20 Aug 1809. If you can get access to his Ticket there may well be a physical description together with some earlier details of his career.

Hope this helps.
Martin

PS For his Crimea service he was awarded the Baltic Medal sent to Falmouth CG District in 1857.