Royal Naval Biography/Smith, George Sidney
GEORGE SIDNEY SMITH, Esq.
[Captain of 1828.]
Nephew to Admiral Sir W. Sidney Smith, K.C.B., with whose gallant but unfortunate protégé, the late Captain John Wesley Wright, he was taken prisoner in the Vincejo brig, May 8th, 1804[1]. We next find him serving as midshipman of the Redwing 18, Captain the Hon. Robert C. Spencer, and receiving a wound in the thigh, at the attack upon Cassis, near Toulon, by a squadron under Captain Thomas Ussher, Aug. 18th, 1813[2]. His first commission bears date Jan. 21st, 1814; and in April following, he was appointed to the Undaunted frigate, commanded by the last named officer.
Having become well versed in French, during several years’ captivity at Verdun, Lieutenant Smith was selected by Captain Ussher to command the boat in which Napoleon Buonaparte embarked when quitting France for Elba; and he appears to have been afterwards landed at Capraja, as temporary governor of that island. His next appointments were, – Jan. 5th, 1816, to the Albion 74, fitting out for the flag of Sir Charles V. Penrose; in which ship he bore a part at the battle of Algiers: and, May 13th, 1817, to the Satellite 18, Captain James Murray, on the Mediterranean station. He was promoted to the command of the Bustard sloop, employed in the West Indies, Mar. Pith, 1827; and advanced to the rank of captain in Aug. 1828.