Rossshire, and many years Collector of the Customs at the port of Stornoway, by his cousin, Annabella, daughter of John Mackenzie, Esq., of Letterewe, on the banks of Loch Maree. His paternal grandfather, the Rev. Jas. Robertson, Minister of Loch Broom, co. Ross, eminent for the support he afforded the Royal cause during the Rebellion of 1745-6, was the means of preventing a large detachment of the King’s forces, under the Earl of Loudon and the celebrated Lord President Forbes, from being cut off by the rebels under the Duke of Perth. Espousing the cause of the Stuarts, his maternal grandfather, Murdoch Mackenzie, behaved with desperate bravery while fighting under his kinsman, William, Earl of Seaforth, at the battle of Glenshiel, in 1719. Commander Robertson Walker assumed the name of Walker in addition to his patronymic, Robertson, on the occasion of his marriage, as beneath.
This officer entered the Navy, 6 April, 1801, as A.B., on board the Inspector sloop, Capt. Robt. Howe Bromley, lying in Leith Roads. In the course of the same month he became Midshipman of the Princess Charlotte 38, Capt. Hon. Fras. Farington Gardner; and after serving for two years in that ship on the Irish station, part of the time as Master’s Mate, he joined, in May, 1803, the Canopus 80, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Geo. Campbell, at first off Cadiz and then in the Mediterranean; where, at the recommendation of his Captain, John Conn, he was received by Lord Nelson, in March, 180.5, on board his own flag-ship, the Victory 100. In the Canopus he was engaged in several skirmishes with the enemy’s batteries on Cape Sepet. On his return in the Victory from the West Indies, whither he had gone in pursuit of the combined squadrons of France and Spain, he fought, as Forecastle Mate, at the battle of Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1805. On the latter ship being put out of commission, in Jan. 1806, he was placed, at the instance of her Captain, Sir Thos. Masterman Hardy, on board the Thames 32, Capt. Brydges Watkinson Taylor; under whom we find him present in a boat in the first attempt made, by Commodore Edw. W. C. R. Owen, to destroy the Boulogne flotilla by means of Congreve’s rockets. On proceeding subsequently to the West Indies Mr. Robertson, who had previously, in company with the Phoebe 36, Capt. Jas. Oswald, visited the Greenland Seas in pursuit of some French frigates who had been sent to interrupt the whale fishery, was transferred, in April, 1807, to the Northumberland 74, bearing the flag of Hon. Sir Alex. Cochrane. In the ensuing Dec, having followed the latter into the Belleisle 74, he assisted, as Mate of the Signals, at the reduction of the Danish islands of St. Thomas and Ste. Croix. In Feb. 1808 he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Galatea 36, in the room of a Lieutenant Boyle, whose death at sea had been reported, but whom, on reaching the frigate, Mr. Robertson found in a state of perfect health. He returned in consequence – nearly two months, however, elapsing before he could do so – to the Belleisle; and on arriving on board he had the mortification of finding that several real death vacancies had occurred and had been given to other officers. He was immediately, however, ordered to act as Lieutenant in the Fawn 18, Capt. Hon. Geo. Alfred Crofton. On 20 May following, with two boats under his orders, Mr. Robertson succeeded in capturing a privateer schooner and three merchant-vessels under the very muzzles of the guns in two batteries on the north-east end of Puerto Rico. While the privateer (whose crew, having run her a-ground, had escaped into the bushes and had kept up a heavy fire of musketry) was being towed out, an explosion took place in her magazine which killed 1 and wounded 5 of the Fawn’s people. Mr. Robertson, although on board, fortunately escaped injury. On 17 July, 1808, in command of the boats of his own sloop and of two from the Pultusk brig (accompanied by the present Sir Chas. Napier as a Volunteer), he cut a merchant-schooner out from the same spot and spiked and destroyed the guns in one of the batteries. Being directed, 8 Dec. following, to act as Lieutenant in the Hazard ship-sloop of 18 guns, Capts. Hugh Cameron, Wm. Elliott, and John Cookesley, he assisted in her, in company with the Cleopatra 32 and Jason 32, at the capture, 22 Jan. 1809, of the French frigate La Topaze, of 48 guns and 430 men, including troops, anchored under a small battery to the southward of Pointe Noire, Guadeloupe.[1] Subsequently to the reduction of Martinique, at which he was present, Mr. Robertson, on the night of 14 April, 1809, was sent to row guard close in with a French squadron under M. Troude, who had anchored in the harbour of the Saintes. Having let go a grapnel under the Commodore’s stern, he soon perceived that the latter was getting under weigh. The information thus acquired was instantly announced by means of rockets and blue lights; the blockading force under Sir Alex. Cochrane went in pursuit; and on the 17th the D’Hautpoult 74 was captured. The Hazard having united in the pursuit, Mr. Robertson was unable for 53 days to join her; during the whole of which period he was unable once to change his dress. His confirmation in the rank of Lieutenant took place 21 July, 1809. On 17 Oct. following, while cruizing off Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, he was sent, in charge of the boats of the Hazard and the Pelorus brig, to attack a French privateer, mounting 1 long 18-pounder on a circular carriage and 2 swivels, with a complement of more than 80 men, lying within 10 yards of 2 field-pieces, and a long line of musketry from the beach, defended too by a heavy fire of grape from a battery, and moored to the shore by a chain from the mast-head and from each quarter. Covered by the fire of the two sloops, the British, led by Mr. Robertson, dragged their boats, after many ineffectual attempts, across a reef which had impeded their approach, and, dashing on board, obtained possession of the privateer, whose crew, a minute or two previously, had abandoned her, and sought shelter in the houses on the beach, whence they kept up a galling fire. It being found impossible to get the prize out, a fire was kindled below which, rather sooner than was expected, blew her up with an explosion that knocked Mr. Robertson into his boat, and sent the Acting-Boatswain of the Hazard, Mr. Wm. Ferguson, into the air. The loss sustained from the fire of the enemy in the above enterprise extended to 6 killed and 7 or 8 wounded. In his official report Capt. Cameron confessed that it was not possible for him to express his ideas of the very gallant manner in which it had been conducted.[2] During an attack made, 18 Dec. 1809, in Anse la Barque, Guadeloupe, on the two French 40-gun frigates Loire and Seine, and which, although they were strongly protected by batteries, terminated in their destruction, the Hazard, forming one of a squadron under Capt. Sam. Jas. Bnllard, behaved most conspicuously. In an early part of the action, Capt. Cameron, who had been called from her by signal to execute a service on shore, was killed. The command in the mean time had devolved upon Mr. Robertson; and so admirably did he perform his duty that not only was he directed by Sir Alex. Cochrane to remain in command of her until the arrival of the officer intended to succeed Capt. Cameron, but he received from the Admiral a promise that he would request Lord Mulgrave, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to give him rank as Lieutenant from the date of his original acting order. As the officer above alluded to was at the time at Halifax refitting the brig he commanded, and was not expected to arrive for some months, Mr. Robertson was induced to believe that he should be afforded an opportunity of sharing in his new capacity in the operations about to commence against Guadeloupe; and indeed he was flattered, as a French squadron was hourly expected from Europe to relieve it, by being ordered to place the Hazard in a situation which would enable her
