Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p2.djvu/115

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commanders.
99


CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT, Esq.
[Commander.]

Passed his examination in Feb. 1813; obtained a commission on the 14th Dec. 1814; served as lieutenant of the Impregnable 104, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral (now Sir David) Milne, at the battle of Algiers; and subsequently in the Tartar frigate. Commodore Sir George Collier, on the African station, where he was employed in command of the Snapper gun-brig, when advanced to his present rank by the Admiralty, June 6th, 1822. He returned home passenger on board the Morgiana sloop, Nov. 6th following; and is now an inspecting commander in the coast guard service.



ALFRED MATTHEWS, Esq.
[Commander.]

Third surviving son of the late John Matthews, Esq., of Belmont, Herefordshire; and brother to the ingenious author of the “Diary of an Invalid.” The first of these very worthy and much esteemed gentlemen represented the above county in parliament for several years, and was colonel of the first regiment of local militia: the latter died soon after his elevation to the bench in the island of Ceylon.

Mr. Alfred Matthews entered the royal navy in Jan. 1803, (then only eleven years of age,) as midshipman on board the Culloden 74, Captain ____ Lane, from which ship he followed Rear-Admiral (afterwards Sir George) Campbell into the Canopus 80. We next find him serving under Captain Benjamin Hallowell[1] in the Tigre 80, forming part of that compact little squadron which, under the immortal Nelson, pursued the combined fleets of France and Spain to and from the West Indies, thereby saving our colonies from plunder and devastation[2].

  1. The late Admiral Sir B. H. Carew, G.C.B.
  2. The Tigre, it will be remembered, was one of a few unlucky ships of the line which, after all the irksomeness of a tedious blockade, and all the anxieties of an arduous chase, lost by a hair’s breadth chance their share