A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Maw, Henry Lister
MAW. (Lieutenant, 1825.)
Henry Lister Maw has lost two brothers in the military service of their country.
This officer entered the Navy 11 May, 1818; and was for some time Midshipman of the Liffey 50, bearing the broad pendant in the East Indies of Commodore Chas. Grant, by whom, during the expedition to Ava, he was allowed to act as Naval Aide-de-Camp to Sir Alex. Campbell, Commander-in-Chief of the troops. While officiating in that capacity he appears to have been employed in surveying the Rangoon river, and to have effected, 25 June, 1824, the destruction of two fire-rafts. In an attack subsequently made on a strong stockade on the Dalla river, it was his misfortune, while cheering on his men, to receive a ball in the head – a circumstance which obliged him to return to England for the benefit of his health. Having all along, however, distinguished himself by “a series of gallantry” exhibitive of the “most conspicuous and forward bravery,” and being recommended in the strongest terms by Capt. Marryat, the senior naval officer on the station, he was rewarded with a Lieutenant’s commission dated 25 July, 1825. His succeeding appointments were – 2 Feb. 1826, to the Harrier sloop, Capt. John Pakenham, on the coast of Ireland – 7 Jan. 1827 and 2 Oct. 1829, to the Menai 26, and Volage 28, Capts. Michael Seymour and Lord Colchester, both on the South American station – and, 3 Dec. 1832 and 16 July, 1834, as Second-Lieutenant, to the Vernon 50, and President 52, flag-ships of Sir Geo. Cockburn in North America and the West Indies. He has not been employed since 30 Aug. 1834.
In 1830 Lieut. Maw was presented with the large silver medal of the “Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce,” for fragments, &c. collected by him in South America; and in July, 1831, he took out a patent for an invention of an improved method of using fuel, so as to burn smoke. In 1832 he published a “Memoir of the Early Operations of the Burmese War.” He married, 21 March, 1839, Sarah Anne, only daughter of the late Cornelius Peacock, Esq. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.