Howe frigate in escort of the Marquis of Wellesley, late Governor-General of India, he was received as a Supernumerary, in Feb. 1806, on board El Corso, Lieut.-Commander Wm. Collins Barker, lying in the river Thames. Remaining in that vessel but a few days, he next, in Sept. of the same year, joined the Captain 74, commanded by Capt. Cockburn, with whom (deducting a few months passed in 1807-8 on board the Achille 74, Capt. Sir Rich. King) he continued to serve in the Pompée, Belleisle, and Implacable 74’s, until Sept. 1810. In the Pompée he co-operated as Master’s Mate in the reduction of Martinique in Feb. 1809; and in the Belleisle he accompanied the expedition to the Walcheren. In Sept. 1810 he became Acting-Lieutenant (a rank he had held for a short time on board the Implacable) of a vessel (the name of which we are not certain of) commanded on the Cadiz station by Capt. Geo. Matthew Jones. He was confirmed a Lieutenant 26 April, 1811; was next, from Aug. 1812 until May, 1813, employed in the Mediterranean in the Blake 74, Capt. Edw. Codrington, and from Oct. 1815 until Aug. 1817 on the Channel and North American stations in the Pactolus 38, Capt. Wm. Hugh Dobbie; attained his present rank 28 April, 1827; and officiated as an Inspecting-Commander in the Coast Guard from 29 Dec. 1828 until the close of 1832, and again from 24 June, 1836, until the summer of 1839. He has since been on half-pay.
RICHARDS. (Commander, 1845.)
George Henry Richards entered the Navy 3 Nov. 1832; passed his examination 12 March, 1840; was promoted (while Mate of the Caledonia 120, flag-ship at Plymouth of Sir David Milne) to the rank of Lieutenant 12 July, 1842; and, from that period until advanced for his services in the Parana to the rank he now holds, 18 Nov. 1845, was stationed in South America in the Philomel surveying-brig, Capt. Bartholomew Jas. Sulivan. He has been employed, since 14 Oct. 1847, as Second-Captain of the Acheron steam surveying-vessel, of 160-horse power, Capt. John Lort Stokes, on the East India station. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
RICHARDS. (Commander, 1828. f-p., 20; h-p., 29.)
Harry Lord Richards is brother of John Richards, Esq., Purser and Paymaster R.N. (1800), who died in 1846.
This officer entered the Navy, 26 June, 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Prudent prison-ship at Plymouth, Capt. Chas. Henry Lane; and from the following Oct. until his return to England in 1802 was employed in the Channel and West Indies as A.B., Midshipman, and Master’s Mate, in the Druid 32, Capt. Chas. Apthorp, Volage 22, Capts. Hon. Philip Wodehouse, Wm. Parker, and Fras. Vesey (in which ship he assisted at the capture of the Santa Dorval Spanish packet), and Dédaigneuse frigate, Capt. Thos. Geo. Shortland. He then sailed in the ship last mentioned under Capt. Peter Heywood for the East Indies; where, from Feb. 1804 until Jan. 1805, he acted as Lieutenant in the Caroline 36 and Grampus 50, Capts. Benj. Wm. Page and Thos. Gordon Caulfeild. After again serving as Midshipman in the Dédaigneuse and Cornwallis 50, both commanded by Capt. Chas. Jas. Johnston, and as a Supernumerary on promotion in the Culloden 74, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Pellew, he was afresh ordered to act as Lieutenant, in Jan. and July, 1808, in the Caroline, commanded at the time by Capt. Henry Hart, and Fox 32, Capts. Hon. Arch. Cochrane and H. Hart. While attached to the Culloden he contributed, 11 Dec. 1807, to the destruction of the dockyard and stores at Griessee, in the island of Java, and of all the men-of-war remaining to Holland in India;[1] during his servitude in the Caroline he was frequently intrusted with the command of the boats of that ship, and on one occasion succeeded in taking a flotilla of gun-vessels; and while officiating as First of the Fox (from which frigate he invalided in June, 1809) he was in charge of her boats at the capture of a French ship of 10 guns and 100 men under the batteries of Sapara. On 12 Nov. 1809 he was confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant. He next, between Jan. 1811 and June, 1812, served off Madeira and in the Bay of Cadiz in the Merope 10, Capt. Edw. Flin, and, as Senior, in the Alfred 74, Capt. Joshua Sydney Horton. During the six following months he commanded the Fearless gun-vessel off Cadiz and Tangier and in various parts of the Mediterranean; and from the close of 1813 until June, 1815, he was actively employed on the lakes of Canada, where a severe injury occasioned him the loss of sight in one eye. On his return to England in the autumn of 1815 he was for three months employed at Plymouth as First-Lieutenant in the Conway 24, Capt. John Tancock. His succeeding appointments were – 31 Jan. 1822, to the Owen Glendower 42, Capt. Hon. Robt. Cavendish Spencer, which ship was paid off in the following Sept. – 7 May, 1824, to the Aetna bomb, Capt. Williams Sandom, on the Mediterranean station – and 19 Aug. 1825, as Senior, to the Galatea 42, Capt. Chas. Sullivan, employed on particular service. He attained his present rank 20 Aug. 1828, and has since been on half-pay.
Commander Richards married Miss E. Worth, of Plymouth.
RICHARDS. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 22; h-p., 19.)
John Richards entered the Navy, 14 July, 1806, as L.M., on board the Wagtail, and was for some months employed in cruizing among the Western Islands. While serving next, between Feb. 1807 and Feb. 1813, in the Centaur 74, Commodore Sir Sam. Hood, he accompanied the expedition against Copenhagen – witnessed the surrender of Madeira – assisted, in conjunction with the Implacable 74, at the capture, 26 Aug. 1808, in sight of the whole Russian fleet near Rogerswick, of the 74-gun ship Sewolod, after a close and furious engagement, in which the Centaur lost 3 killed and 27 wounded, and the enemy 180 killed and wounded – and took part in the operations of 1809 in the Scheldt. From 1 March, 1813, until 1 Jan. 1816, he served in the Downs and North Sea and at Cork in the Monmouth 64 and Scarborough 74, flag-ships of Admirals Thos. Foley and John Ferrier, and Tigris 36, Capt. Robt. Henderson. He then took up a commission bearing date 3 Aug. 1815. Since 7 May, 1835, he has been in command of a station in the Coast Guard.
RICHARDS, C.B. (Captain, 1828. f-p., 26; h-p., 23.)
Peter Richards entered the Navy, in 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Cambridge 74, Capt. Rich. Roger, bearing the flag of Sir Rich. King at Plymouth, where, with the exception of a few months in 1799 and 1800, he continued employed until May, 1802, in the Résolue, Lieut.-Commander Thos. Richards. From Nov. 1802 until Dec. 1807 he served on the Home and Mediterranean stations, principally in the capacity of Midshipman, in the Culloden 74, flag-ship of Rear-Admirals Jas. Rich. Dacres and Geo. Campbell, Dreadnought and Princess Royal 98’s, both commanded by Capt. Robt. Carthew Reynolds, Hercule 74, Capt. Hon. John Colville, and Ocean 98, flag-ship of Lord Collingwood. On 12 of the month last mentioned he was made Lieutenant into the Repulse 74, Capt. Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge, part of the force employed in the expedition to the Walcheren in 1809; and he was subsequently appointed – 23 Feb. and 4 May, 1811, to the Montagu 74, Capt. John Halliday, and Revenge of similar force, successive flagship at Cadiz, off Toulon, and in the Adriatic, of Rear-
- ↑ Although on board the Culloden, he had been nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Belliqueux 64. This ship, however, he never joined.
