March, 1801. He was soon after appointed to one of the yachts in attendance on the royal family at Weymouth, and continued to be employed on that sort of service till about April, 1804, when he succeeded Sir Isaac Coffin, as Commissioner of Sheerness Dockyard, from whence he afterwards removed to Portsmouth, where he now resides.
In June, 1814, his present Majesty, (then on a visit to the fleet at Spithead, in company with the allied sovereigns) presented Commissioner Grey with the patent of a Baronetcy; and on the 20th May, 1820, he was graciously pleased to nominate him an extra K.C.B.
Sir George Grey married, in July, 1795, Mary, sister to the late Samuel Whitbread, Esq., M.P. for Bedford, (who had some years previous thereto been united to one of his sisters) by whom he has had several children.
ROBERT GAMBIER MIDDLETON, Esq
One of the Principal Officers and Commissioners of his Majesty’s Navy.
[Retired Captain.]
The name of Middleton is derived from the lands of Middletoun, in Kincardineshire, of which this family were in possession for nearly four centuries and a half. The subject of this memoir is a son of the late George Middleton, Esq., brother of Admiral Lord Barham, and Collector of the Customs at Leith, by Elizabeth, daughter of George Wilson, of Stottencleugh, N.B. Esq.
Being destined for the navy, he went to sea at an early age, and we believe served as a Lieutenant in Lord Hood’s fleet, at the occupation and evacuation of Toulon, in 1793[1].
- ↑ In the list of officers employed in the service of burning the French ships and arsenal at Toulon, we find a Lieutenant Middleton of the Britannia. Unfortunately for the Compiler, in this, as in numerous other instances which he has met with, the Christian names of officers were not considered necessary to be mentioned by the writer of the official despatch; an omission greatly to be deplored, as we know that the meritorious actions of some individuals are occasionally, though unintentionally, assigned to others, in consequence thereof. Commanding officers, having a proper feeling for their subordinates, would do well to give their secretaries and clerks strict orders to insert the names of officers employed on hazardous services, at full length. The palm would then be worn by him who won it. To evince the necessity of so doing, we need only point to the Navy List for Jan., 1824, in which will be found no less than 39 Lieute-
