Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/1321

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WILSON
1307

Danish man-of-war brig Lougen, of 20 guns and 160 men; so battered however was the Childers, that she narrowly escaped foundering: her loss amounted to 2 men killed and 8 wounded. For his conduct Capt. Dillon was advanced to Post-rank. On 19 Oct. following Mr. Wilson, then under the command of Capt. Packwood, contributed to the capture of the Frenskernsten Danish privateer of 4 guns, 2 swivels, and 21 men. In Jan. 1811 he removed as Master’s Mate to the Mermaid 32, Capts. Hon. Wm. Henry Percy and David Dunn; and while in that ship, in which he remained until Nov. 1814, he was employed in conveying troops to Portugal and Spain, and was present, in 1813, at the siege of Trieste and in the unsuccessful attack upon Leghorn. On leaving her he was received as a Supernumerary on board the Prince Frederick, Capt. Rich. Pridham, stationed at Plymouth. H e was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant 15 Feb. 1815; and has since been on half-pay.

He is now a Collector of Customs in Upper Canada.



WILSON. (Captain, 1848. f-p., 25; h-p., 10.)

George Knyvett Wilson entered the Navy, in July, 1812, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Minden 74, Capt. Alex. Skene, with whom (deducting a few weeks passed at Portsmouth, in the early part of 1814, in the Bellerophon 74, Capt. Edw. Hawker) he continued employed as Midshipman in the Illustrious 74, and in the Tonnant 80 and Asia 74, on the East India, North American, and Mediterranean stations, until Feb. 1816. He was present, we believe, in the attack upon New Orleans. From 1 April, 1816, until 28 July, 1817, he cruized on the coast of Ireland in the Pandora sloop, Capts. Hon. Fred. Noel and Geo. Matthew Jones; from 4 Aug. 1818 until 31 Oct. 1821 he was employed in the East Indies and at Halifax in the Phaeton 46, Capts. Wm. Henry Dillon and Wm. Augustus Montagu; and from 1 Nov. 1821 until 21 Feb. 1824 he served at Portsmouth, at Plymouth, and on the coast of Africa, the latter part of the time as Acting-Lieutenant in the Icarus 10, Capt. Thos. Herbert, Windsor Castle 74, Capt. Chas. Dashwood, Owen Glendower 42, Commodore Sir Robt. Mends, and Bann 20, Capts. Geo. Wm. Conway Courtenay and Geo. Woolcombe. He was officially promoted 25 March, 1824; and was appointed next – 5 March, 1825, to the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Hyperion 42, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye – 28 Sept. following, to the Talbot 28, Capt. Hon. Fred. Spencer, fitting for the Mediterranean, where he remained until the close of 1828, and was at the battle of Navarin, the capitulation of Patras, and the reduction of Morea Castle – 10 March, 1830, to the Scylla 18, Capts. John Hindmarsh and Hon. Geo. Grey, again in the Mediterranean – 3 April, 1834, to the Excellent gunnery-ship at Portsmouth, Capt., now Sir Thos., Hastings – 29 Aug. 1835, to the Rodney 92, Capt. Hyde Parker, with whom he returned to the Mediterranean – and 1 Aug. 1838, after nearly two years of half-pay, a second time, to the Excellent, Capt. Sir T. Hastings. In the above ships he filled the post, chiefly, of First-Lieutenant. On 3 July, 1840, he was advanced to the rank of Commander. He served as Second-Captain in the Cambridge 78, in the Mediterranean, from 16 Oct. 1841 until Jan. 1843; and commanded the Pilot 16, in the East Indies, from 13 Oct. 1845 until the close of 1847. He attained his present rank 15 Feb. 1848.



WILSON. (Lieut., 1811. f-p., 11; h-p., 32.)

Harry Wilson was born 26 Nov. 1789.

This officer entered the Navy, 13 May, 1804, as Midshipman, on board the Elephant 74, Capt. Geo. Dundas, stationed in the West Indies, where he removed, in 1805, to the Circe 32, Capt. Jonas Rose, and became Master’s Mate, in 1806, of the Alligator 28, Capt. Robt. Campbell. In 1804 he assisted in the boats of the Elephant at the cutting-out of a privateer from the neighbourhood of Jacmel, St. Domingo. From 1807 until promoted by the Admiralty 26 April, 1811, he served as Master’s Mate and Acting-Lieutenant in the Alfred and Implacable 74’s, Capts. John Bligh, John Hayes, and Joshua Rowley Watson. He commanded a launch in the attack upon Copenhagen in 1807; in 1808 he aided in bringing off the wounded after the battle of Vimiera; he was employed, too, in blockading the Russian fleet in the Tagus; and he commanded a party of seamen on shore, we are told, at the reduction of Martinique and Guadeloupe. He cooperated, in charge of a gun-boat, in the defence of Cadiz, and was engaged while there in keeping up a communication with the army at Barrosa. In the execution of these services he received a musketball in the thigh. His last appointments were, 19 Oct. 1811, 27 Jan. 1814 (and, after some months of half-pay, occasioned by ill health), 4 July, 1815, to the Defiance 74, Capt. Rich. Raggett, Griffon brig, Capt. Geo. Barne Trollope, and Berwick 74, Capt. Edw. Brace. In an affair, in the Defiance, with some Danish gun-boats in the Little Belt, he was for a time deprived, by an explosion, of the sight of both eyes. While in the Berwick, of which ship he was Senior Lieutenant, he commanded a gun-boat at Flushing, Ter Ver, and Fort Lillo; and a division of Sicilian gun-boats at Gaeta.



WILSON. (Commander, 1821.)

Henry Smith Wilson died 22 Dec. 1844, at Andover.

This officer entered the Navy, 10 May, 1793, as a Boy, on board the Concorde 36, Capts. Thos. Wells and Sir Rich. John Strachan; on rejoining the former of whom, as Midshipman, in the Melampus 36, he assisted, when in company with a squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren, at the capture of La Pomone of 44 guns and 341 men, Le Babet of 22 guns and 178 men, and L’Engageante of 38 guns and 300 men. On quitting the Melampus, which frigate had been latterly commanded by Sir R. J. Strachan, he was received, in Oct. 1794, on board the Defence 74, and in that ship he continued employed under the command of Capts. Wells, Wm. Brown, and John Peyton, until nominated, in Nov. 1798, Acting-Lieutenant of the Aboukir 74, Capt. Bowen, off Lisbon. He was in consequence present in Hotham’s second partial action, 13 July, 1795; also at the blockade of the Texel; and as Master’s Mate at the battle of the Nile, 1 Aug. 1798. He was confirmed a Lieutenant, 9 Sept. 1799, into the Bellona 74, Capts. Sir Thos. Boulden Thompson and Thos. Bertie, in which ship he cruized in the Channel, fought in the action off Copenhagen 2 April, 1801, and visited the West Indies. He was subsequently (after nine months of half-pay) appointed – 26 April, 1803, to the Unicorn 32, Capt. Lucius Ferdinand Hardyman, with whom he served in the North Sea, at Newfoundland, and in the West Indies and Rio de la Plata until Oct. 1807 – 16 and 31 Aug. 1808, to the Inflexible 64, Capts. Hon. Donald Hugh Mackay and Thos. Brown, and Badger sloop, Capt. John Lampen Manley, both lying at Chatham – 23 April, 1810, for about 12 months, to the Namur 74, flag-ship of Sir Henry Edwin Stanhope at the Nore – 23 Oct. 1812, to the command of the Bahama prison-ship at Chatham, where he remained exactly two years – and, 7 Nov. 1818, to the command of the Surly cutter of 6 guns, at Sheerness. When Senior of the Unicorn he took command, 6 May, 1805, of the boats belonging to that frigate and effected the capture, near St. Domingo, after a pull of many hours, and in the face of a strong opposition, of the Tape-à-bord French privateer, mounting 4 6-pounders, with a complement of 46 well-armed men.[1] He also assisted at the storming of Monte Video In Feb. 1807. He was promoted from the Surly to the rank of Commander 19 July, 1821; but did not again go afloat.



WILSON. (Commander, 1828. f-p., 20; h-p., 30.)

James Wilson entered the Navy, 6 Nov. 1797, as Midshipman, on board the Blenheim 98, Capt.

  1. Vide Gaz. 1805, p. 801.