Icarus under his orders. Having captured one vessel at the source of the river and given the command of her to Mr. Snell, he proceeded up a branch of the stream in his own boat, the gig, leaving the other, the cutter, in company with the prize. He encountered the pirates during his absence, and, as we have already stated, was by them murdered. After this Mr. Snell remained for several days blockading the river in the above-named prize alone, with not more than 7 men, the cutter having returned to the Icarus with intelligence of that which had occurred.
THOMPSON. (Captain, 1846.)
Thomas Sparke Thompson, born 28 March, 1798, is son of the late Henry Thompson, Esq., a Captain in the Staff Corps, and subsequently Collector of H.M. Customs in the island of St. Thomas.
This officer entered the Navy, 25 Sept. 1810, as Sec.-cl. Vol., on board the Galatea 36, Capt. Woodley Losack; and on 20 May, 1811, was present off Madagascar in the frigate-action noticed in our memoir of Commander Thos. Bevis. After assisting at the blockade of Cherbourg he removed, as Midshipman, in 1813, to the Akbar 50, Capts. Sir Archibald Collingwood Dickson and Chas. Sullen; under whom he was for about four years employed on the Brazilian, North American, and Home stations. He served subsequently in the East Indies, again on the coast of North America, in the Channel and West Indies, and on the coast of Africa, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the Phaeton 46, Capts. Wm. Henry Dillon, Wm. Augustus Montagu, and Henry Evelyn Bitfield Sturt, and Maidstone 42, Commodore Chas. Bullen. While on the African station (where he was promoted by the officer last mentioned to the post of First-Lieutenant in the Victor sloop, Capt. Geo. Woollcombe) he saw much boat-service up the different rivers. On one occasion he had an officer (an Assistant-Surgeon) and 10 men drowned among the rollers at the entrance of the Bonny. An attack of fever, caught in the Bight of Benin, led to his being sent home as unfit for further duty. Before he joined the Galatea, he held the appointment of Junior-Lieutenant in the Spartiate 76, Capt. Fred. Warren, at Portsmouth; and while attached to the Royal Charlotte, of which vessel he was for some time First-Lieutenant, he had command of her tenders the Tiger and Quail. During the period he served in the Comus, Capt. Thompson had charge of the blockade of Maldonado and other ports, and also of the Buenos Ayrean squadron. In Oct. 1845 he was ordered to act as Captain in the Curaçoa 24; in which ship we find him conducting the blockade of Buenos Ayres. On his return to the Comus he was employed as Senior officer in the Parana and Uruguay, and in co-operating in different ways with the French squadron. He brought away, we may add, the distressed English and Europeans from Mercedes, in the Rio Negro.
Capt. Thompson married, 26 Oct. 1830, Henrietta, second daughter of the late Geo. Norman, Esq., of Bromley Common, Kent, by whom he has issue four children.
WALLIS. (Captain, 1819.)
Provo William Parry Wallis did not actually go to sea until he joined the Cleopatra in Sept. 1800. His name had been only borne on the books of the Oiseau, Prevoyante, and Asia. He was wrecked in the Curieux 21 Sept. 1809; the date we have elsewhere given being that of the court-martial which took place on the occasion. In the Gloire he was present, 18 Dec. 1809, at the destruction of the 40-gun frigates Loire and Seine, and of the batteries of Ance la Barque, Guadeloupe. For his conduct at the capture of the Chesapeake he received a letter of approbation, from the Admiralty. The Niemen was at first, intended for service at the Cape of Good Hope, but her destination was changed. Capt. Wallis was specially deputed, in the Warspite, to watch the operations of the French at Mogador. His wife was a daughter of the Ven. Roger Massey. We should have styled his sister Lady James, not Lady Elizabeth, Townshend. In April, 1847, Capt. Wallis was offered the Good-Service Pension; but this he declined for the appointment of Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
WIDDRINGTON. (Commander, 1824.)
Samuel Edward Widdrington entered the Navy 31 Dec. 1802, and served – until made Lieutenant into the Fame 74 – in the Ambuscade and Seine frigates, and Glory 98, Ocean 98, and Ville de Paris 110. At first he was in constant action with the enemy’s batteries and flotilla in the neighbourhood of Boulogne. He was also most actively employed in the West Indies; where, in June, 1805, while cruizing in the Seine’s barge under Lieut. (of Marines) Thos. Bland, he obtained mention for his conduct at the capture of a large felucca, the Concepcion, from Puerto Rico bound to Cadiz, laden with a cargo of cocoa and cochineal, and armed with 2 long 4-pounders and 14 men, 5 of whom were severely wounded, without, however, any loss to the British. He aided in making prize of many other vessels, and saw much boat-service on the coasts of Cayenne and Surinam. On leaving the Fame, in which ship he had been also actively employed, he joined, in 1810, the Resistance frigate. In her he assisted at the capture and destruction, on the coast of Tuscany, of a depôt of timber for the arsenal at Toulon. When First of the Swallow he united, 5 Oct. 1813, in an attack made by that vessel and the Edinburgh 74, Impérieuse 38, and Éclair and Pylades sloops, on the defences of Port d’Anzo, where a convoy of 29 sail fell into the hands of the British. On that occasion, after the fire of a tower, opposed to the Swallow, had been silenced, he landed and blew it up. In 1824 he was in attendance, with a division of boats under his orders, upon Don John of Portugal when that monarch sought refuge on board the Windsor Castle.
Commander Widdrington is the author of two works on Spain and of several minor contributions on scientific subjects. He is a Fellow of the Royal and Geographical Societies.
