acting-command of the Shark, Drake, and Mignonne sloops, on the Jamaica station. While in the latter vessel Mr. Lennock was confirmed a Commander by commission dated 6 Aug. 1806. He returned to England, after having further had command of the Musette and Moselle sloops, in Feb. 1809; and was next, in Oct. of that year, appointed to the Raven 16, attached to the force in the North Sea. On 3 July, 1812, in face of the enemy’s fleet at Flushing, and under the very guns of that enemy’s forts, Capt. Lennock made a dashing attack on 14 brigs (each armed with 3 or 4 long 24-pounders) and drove three of them on shore. His .quickness, indeed, in deciding upon this exploit, and his skill and spirit in executing it, obtained him very high approbation.[1] His last appointment was, 21 Jan. 1814, to the Esk corvette, of 20 guns; in which vessel we find him continuously employed off the Canary Islands, and in the Channel and South America, until paid off in Dec. 1818. During the earlier part of that period Capt. Lennock (whose Post commission bears date 4 June, 1814) effected the capture of the Sine-quâ-non American privateer, of 7 guns and 81 men, and fought a smart action, off Teneriffe, with two other American vessels, the Grampus and Terpsichore. He accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
Capt. Lennock married, in 1829, Anna, eldest daughter of J. Walker, Esq., of Crawford Town, by whom he has issue.
LEROUX. (Retired Commander, 1844. f-p., 17; h-p., 37.)
Frederick James Leroux entered the Navy, in Nov. 1793, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Charon hospital-ship, Capt. Geo. Countess, whom, after sharing in Lord Howe’s action 1 June, 1794, he successively followed as A.B., Midshipman, and Master’s Mate, into the Pegasus 28, Daedalus 32, Ethalion 38, and Robust 74. In those ships he served on the North Sea, West India, Channel, and Cork stations until the commencement of the year 1800; and, while in the Ethalion, was present, on the coast of Ireland, at the capture, 12 Oct. 1798, of the French 40-gun frigate La Bellone, after a sharp conflict and a trifling loss to the British. On 25 April, 1800, being at the time a Supernumerary of the Royal George 100, flag-ship of Lord Bridport, Mr. Leroux was promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Astraea armée en flûte, Capts. Peter Ribouleau and Alex. Campbell, under the former of whom he won the Turkish gold medal for his services in Egypt. Quitting the Astraea in Dec. 1801, he was subsequently appointed – 12 March, 1803, to the Utrecht 64, flag-ship on the Home station of Admirals Montagu, Patton, and Holloway – 31 Dec. 1804, to the Ramillies 74, Capt. Fras. Pickmore, in which ship he beheld the capture, 13 March, 1806, of the Marengo 80, bearing the flag of Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule – 17 Sept. and 3 Oct. 1808 (having invalided from the Ramillies in June, 1806), to the Cordelia 10, and Bombay 74, Capts. Thos. Fortescue Kennedy and Wm. Cuming, on the Home and Mediterranean stations – 5 Nov. 1809, to the Fame 74, Capts. Bennett, Hornby, Ferris, and Bathurst, also in the Mediterranean – and, lastly, 19 Nov. 1811 (eight months after his return to England), to the command (which he retained until 6 June, 1814) of the Ganges prison-ship at Plymouth.
He became a Retired Commander on the Junior List 26 Nov. 1830; and on the Senior 15 Nov. 1844.
LESLIE. (Rear-Admiral, 1846. f-p., 32; h-p., 22.)
Samuel Leslie, born in March, 1779, at Rockfield, co. Antrim, is son of the late Ven. Edm. Leslie, Archdeacon of Down, by his second wife, Eleanor, daughter of Geo. Portis, Esq., of London; and descends from a noble Hungarian family who settled in North Britain in 1067. His grand-aunt, Penelope, wife of E. F. Stafford, Esq., was mother of the first Viscountess Dungannon, and grandmother of the late Countess of Mornington, mother of the Duke of Wellington.
This officer entered the Navy, in May, 1793, as Ordinary, on board the Pomona 28, Capt. Henry d’Esterre Darby; and until the early part of 1794 was employed, chiefly in the capacity of Midshipman, in annoying the enemy’s coasting-trade, a service which frequently brought him under fire of the batteries on the French shore. During the next three years we find him cruizing, at first with Capt. Darby, and then with Capt. Wm. Hotham, in the Adamant 50, on the West India, Newfoundland, and Lisbon stations. On next joining the Impétueux 74, Capt. John Willett Payne, Mr. Leslie served for many months at the blockade of Brest; after which, on being again placed under the orders of Capt. Darby in the Bellerophon 74, he fought as Master’s Mate at the battle of the Nile 1 Aug. 1798. In the summer of 1799, as soon as he had passed his examination, he was received on board the Foudroyant 80, bearing the flag of Lord Nelson, who, as a reward for his conduct in having volunteered in a heavy gale of wind to recover one of the ship’s boats which had broken adrift in Palermo Bay, nominated him, in the following Nov., Acting-Lieutenant of the Success 32, Capt. Shuldham Peard. While in that frigate, to which he was not confirmed until 16 Oct. 1800, Mr. Leslie served at the blockade of Malta, assisted at the capture, on 18 Feb. and 24 Aug. in the latter year, of the French 74-gun ship Le Généreux, and 40-gun frigate La Diane, and was on board her when she was herself taken, 13 Feb. 1801, by a French squadron under M. Ganteaume. Being soon exchanged, he joined, in the ensuing May, the Haerlem 64, Capts. Geo. Burlton, John Stuart, John Geo. Saville, and – Northey, with whom he continued in the Mediterranean until the close of 1802. After a servitude of two years and five months at Newfoundland and among the Western Islands, in the Camilla 20, Mr. Leslie, in Sept. 1803, was appointed to La Chiffonne 36, Capts. Patrick Campbell and John Wainwright; which frigate was at first employed in attendance on George III. off Weymouth, and afterwards at the blockade of Cadiz, and in the Mediterranean and East Indies. Previously to his departure for the latter station, Mr. Leslie, it appears, took part in many cutting-out affairs, and on one occasion had 2 men killed and 3 wounded in a boat under his immediate orders. In Nov. 1809, being then Senior of La Chiffonne, he accompanied an expedition conducted by Capt. Wainwright and Lieut.-Colonel Lionel Smith against the pirates of the Persian Gulf. During the attack which was there made upon Ras-al-Khyma, the stronghold of the freebooters, he distinguished himself in a very remarkable manner. In the first place, he burnt, within twice her own length of the shore, the Minerva, an English ship, which had some time before fallen into their hands.[2] Besides being very active in the cannonade of the place, he also, with excellent judgment and gallantry, executed, on the northern end of the town, a feint, which had the effect of facilitating the main attack on the southern end; and he then, while the operations of the troops were in progress, performed much valuable service with the gun-boats attached to his ship. In the course of the same day, Nov. 13, he set fire to all the dows which were afloat in the harbour, and was of further essential assistance in the re-embarkation of the military. The active and unwearied nature of Mr. Leslie’s services, indeed, was such as to call forth, together with a warm recommendation on his behalf for promotion, the strongest expressions of admiration and gratitude from the Lieutenant-Colonel, and a most glowing panegyric from his own Captain. He was not, however, in any way rewarded until Jan. 1811, when at length the Commander-in-Chief promoted him into the Wilhelmina hospital-ship at Poulo-Pinang – an appointment which the Admiralty confirmed 1 March following. On 31 July, 1812, exactly four months after he had been nominated Acting-Captain
