290
DIGGENS—DILKE—DILKES—DILLON.
gate, Capt. Edw. Tucker. Being confirmed by the Admiralty 11 Dec. 1807, he continued actively employed in that ship, still on the Indian station, until Oct. 1809, when he invalided home on board the Rattlesnake 18, Capt. Jas. John Gordon Bremer. After a subsequent cruize of six or eight months in the North Sea as Lieutenant of the Armada 74, Capt. Adam Mackenzie, he was promoted to the rank of Commander by commission dated 8 Feb. 1812. From July, 1813, until advanced to Post-rank 8 Sept. 1815, Capt. Digby next had charge of the Hydra troop-ship, in which, we believe, he attended the expedition to New Orleans. He accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
He married Miss Jackson, and has issue two sons and a daughter.
DIGGENS. (Lieutenant, 1842.)
Francis John Diggens entered the Navy 17 Sept. 1828; passed his examination 20 July, 1836; and after serving for some time in the East Indies as Mate of the Larne 18, Capt. Pat. John Blake, was promoted to the rsmk of Lieutenant 21 Sept. . His appointments have since been – 10 Aug. 1843, to the Hydra steam-sloop, Capt. Horatio Beauman Young, off the coast of Africa – and, 4 March, 1845, to the Hibernia 104, flag-ship in the Mediterranean of Sir Wm. Parker, with whom he is at present serving. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.
DILKE. (Captain, 1837. f-p., 17; h-p., 19.)
Thomas Dilke entered the Navy, 23 May, 1811, as Fst.-cl. Boy, on board the Revenge 74, Capts. John Nash and Chas. Bateman, in which ship, and the Marlborough 74, bearing the respective flags of Rear-Admirals Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge and Geo. Cockburn, he served, off Cadiz, latterly as Midshipman, until Nov. 1812. During the next six years, he appears to have been successively employed on the West India, Home, and Mediterranean stations, in the Magnificent 74, Capt. Willoughby Thos. Lake, Saracen 16, Capt. Alex. Dixie, Ramillies 74, and Malta 84, both commanded by Capt. Chas. Ogle, Rivoli 74, Capt. Aiskew Paffard Hollis, and Ganymede 26, Capt. Hon. Robt. Cavendish Spencer. On 3 Oct. 1818, he became Acting-Lieutenant of the Myrmidon 20, Capt. Robt. Gambier; and being officially confirmed in his new rank 22 Jan. 1819, was afterwards appointed – 12 July, 1821, to the Cherokee 10, Capts. Theobald Jones and Wm. Keats, off Leith – 12 April, 1823, to the Naiad 46, Capt. Hon. R. C. Spencer, in the Mediterranean – and, 28 Dec. 1826, to the Asia 84, as Flag-Lieutenant to Sir Edw. Codrington, Commander-in-Chief on the same station. While in the Naiad, Mr. Dilke contributed to the defeat, 31 Jan. 1824, of the Tripoli, Algerine corvette, of 18 guns and 100 men; and on the night of 23 May following, he commanded the boats, in conjunction with Lieuts. Michael Quin and Geo. Evans, at the brilliant destruction of a 16-gun brig moored in a position of extraordinary strength alongside the walls of the fortress of Bons, in which was a garrison of 400 soldiers, who, from cannon and musket, kept up a tremendous fire almost perpendicularly on the deck. For his conduct in the Asia at the battle of Navarin, 20 Oct. 1827, Mr. Dilke was promoted, the same day, to the command of the Rose 18, in which sloop he continued until some time in the following year. He was afterwards appointed, 4 Aug. 1835, to the Wanderer brig, on the North America and West India station; but since his Post-promotion, 10 Jan. 1837, has been on half-pay. Agent – J. Chippendale.
DILKES, C.B. (Capt., 1809. f-p., 24; h-p., 33.)
Charles Dilkes was born 25 April, 1779, at Warden, co. Bedford, and died in 1846. He was son of Major Thos. Dilkes, of the 49th Regt., who served during the war in America, in 1776-7; and brother of the late Admiral John Dilkes, who died 18 Feb. 1827, as also of General Wm. Thos. Dilkes, who commanded the brigade of Guards at the battle of Barrosa, and died in 1841. His grandfather, Michael O’Bryen, a General, was Colonel of the 50th Regt. in 1744, and Commander-in-Chief in Ireland; and his great-grandfather, Sir Thos. Dilkes, was an Admiral in the reign of Queen Anne.
This officer entered the Navy, 3 April, 1790, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Bellona 74, Capt. Fras. Hartwell, on the Home station; where, during the two following years, he successively joined the Shark 16, and Royal Sovereign 100, both commanded by his brother, Capt. John Dilkes, the Hannibal 74, Capt. John Colpoys, the Princess Charlotte yacht, and the Lion 64. In the latter ship, under Sir Erasmus Gower, he accompanied Lord Macartney, as Midshipman, in his embassy to China, in 1793. On his return, in 1794, he next joined the Flora 36, Capt. Wm. Albany Otway, and, then, the London 98, bearing the flag of Sir John Colpoys, under whom he bore a part in Lord Bridport’s action off Ile de Groix, 23 June, 1795. Immediately on passing his examination, Mr. Dilkes was promoted, 6 Jan. 1797, to a Lieutenancy in the Kite 18, Capt. Wm. Brown; after which we find him appointed – 4 March following, to the Unicorn 32, commanded on the Irish and Channel stations by Capts. Jas. Young and Philip Wilkinson – 18 June, 1800, as Senior, to the Pique 36, Capt. Jas. Young, in which frigate he obtained a gold medal for his services in Egypt, in 1801 – and, 25 Oct. 1802, in a similar capacity, to the Juno 32, Capt. Henry Richardson, also in the Mediterranean, where he remained until advanced to the rank of Commander, 20 March, 1805. Capt. Dilkes – whose next appointment was, 7 Feb. 1806, to the Hazard 18 – commanded for several months in that year the blockading squadron in the Pertuis Breton, with so much vigilance that not one vessel belonging to the enemy was known to escape.[1] On eventually proceeding to the West Indies, he became, 8 Nov. 1808, Flag-Captain to Sir Alex. Cochrane in the Neptune 98; and on 18 Jan. 1809, he was confirmed to Post-rank. In the course of the following Feb. and April, Capt. Dilkes assisted at the reduction of Martinique, and at the capture of the French 74-gun ship D’Haupoult. After following Sir A. Cochrane into the Pompée 74, and Statira 38, and serving on shore in the operations against Guadeloupe, where his activity was most conspicuous,[2] he was next appointed, 20 Oct. 1810, to the Castor 32, which ship he continued actively to command, principally on the Jamaica and Mediterranean stations, until paid off in Sept. 1815. From that period he remained on half-pay.
On the reduction of Guadeloupe, in Feb. 1810, Capt. Dilkes (who died a Sub-Commissioner of the Trinity Board at Gloucester) was appointed Joint-Captain, with Capt. Volant Vashon Ballard, of the Port of Pointe-a-Pitre. He was awarded, without any solicitation on his part, the Good Service Pension, 14 Jan. 1839; and, on 4 July, 1840, he was nominated a C.B. He married, in Jan. 1818, Louisa, only sister of the Rev. Thos. Newenham, the present possessor of Coolmore, co. Cork, by whom he has left issue an only son. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
DILLON, Kt., K.C.H. (Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 1846. f-p., 28; h-p., 29.)
Sir William Henry Dillon, born 8 Aug. 1779, is only surviving son of the late Sir John Talbot Dillon, and derives, through female descent, from the great house of Wingfield, being great-grandson of Sir Mervyn Wingfield, the sixth Baronet.
This officer entered the Navy, in May, 1790, as Captain’s Servant (under the auspices of Vice-Admiral Roddam) on board the Alcide 74, Capt. Sir Andw. Snape Douglas; during his attachment to which ship, on the Channel station, he was occasionally lent to the Hebe 38, and Niger 32, Capts. Alex. Hood and Rich. Goodwin Keats. In Dec. 1792, he joined, as Midshipman, the Thetis 38,
