Page images
PDF
EPUB

Sir Home Riggs Popham.

BORN A. D. 1762.-died A. D. 1820.

THIS officer is said to have been the twenty-first child by the same mother, of a British consul at Tetuan in Morocco, whose family, by different wives, amounted to forty-four! He was born at Tetuan on the 12th of October, 1762. At the age of thirteen he was removed from Westminster school to the university of Cambridge; he then entered the navy under the protection of Commodore Thompson. At the defeat of Langara's squadron, on the 30th of June, 1778, he was present in the Hyæna frigate, in which he continued until 1782, when he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and went out in the Grampus as a maritime surveyor to the African station. He returned to England in 1787, but soon after proceeded to India with a view to acquire professional experience. Upon his arrival in Bengal, he was appointed by Lord Cornwallis one of the committee sent in 1788 to survey New Harbour in the river Hoogly, which service he executed to the satisfaction of government. He returned in the same year to Europe, and concluded this voyage without interruption. After a short interval, being unable to obtain employment in the navy, he was induced to proceed in the Etrusco on a second voyage to India, where, in the year 1791, he effected the important survey of a southern passage or outlet from Prince of Wales' island, and caused a chart to be engraved and published; for this service, so beneficial to the intercourse with China, he received a letter of thanks from the government, and a piece of plate with suitable inscriptions was at the same time presented to him in the name of the general in council. Several masters of ships in the East India trade also signified their wishes on this occasion to present him with a piece of plate in their own names and those of others sailing from Bombay, "being," as they expressed it, "highly sensible of the advantage they may derive from the southern channel leading from Prince of Wales, which you have now fully established." The war with France broke out while the Etrusco was on her homewardbound voyage, which occasioned that ship to put into Crook-haven, from whence she proceeded to Cork to obtain a British convoy, and afterwards came to Spithead under protection of the Diadem. After passing the Irish and English channels under convoy of different British men-of-war, the ship and cargo were eventually seized by the Brilliant frigate, off Ostend, and afterwards condemned to the crown on the ground of having traded beyond the Cape of Good Hope, contrary to the laws respecting the trade to India. The king's proctor, after consulting his majesty's advocate-general on this point, reported by his advice, that the capture was made without any particular exertion of skill or enterprise, and in consequence submitted that the consequences were very peculiar, and the question whether any part of the property condemned should be given to the captors, was a matter entirely for the decision of his majesty's government, as no precedent sufficiently applicable to the case warranted a suggestion of any rule proper to be observed.

Pursuant to a report of this tenor, and as Lieutenant Popham's

transactions in India were well-known to the high authorities there, and his valuable services in that quarter had obtained the public thanks of the Court of directors, with other marks of approbation, restitution was made to him of part of the condemned property, amounting to £25,000, out of which £6000 was paid to the captor for his expenses, who also received £12,993 out of proceeds of property condemned as French.

On the breaking out of the war with France, he returned to the regular service, and subsequently distinguished himself at the head of a party of seamen under the duke of York in Holland. Having turned his attention to a plan for resisting any invasion of this country, he proposed the organization of a corps of sea-fencibles,-a suggestion which, in 1798, was carried into execution.

On the 14th of May, 1798, he sailed for Ostend with a small squadron under his orders, having on board a military force, commanded by General Coote. He arrived off his destination on the 19th of the same month, and some of the troops were immediately landed; but after having blown up the sluice-gates of the town, being unable to reimbark, owing to the roughness of the sea, they were forced to capitulate. In 1799 Captain Popham was sent to Cronstadt to superintend the embarkation of some Russian troops destined to assist in the attack on Holland. While on this service he was visited by the Emperor Paul, who presented him with a gold snuff-box of considerable value, and the cross of Malta. In the winter of the same year he was, in conjunction with Captain Godfrey, intrusted with the command of a small flotilla of gun-boats on the canal of Alkmaar in Holland, which was made to afford considerable protection to the flanks of the British. For his conduct on this service he obtained the special thanks of the duke of York, and a pension of £500 per annum.

In December, 1800, he was intrusted with the command of a small squadron. In 1802 he was returned for the borough of Yarmouth, but was soon after threatened with a parliamentary inquiry. The Hon. Charles Kinnaird gave notice of his intention to move for a committee to inquire into certain charges adduced in the report of the navy board. An imprest was laid on his pay and half-pay, and the charges respecting the expenses of the Romney were to be laid before the commissioners of inquiry in naval abuses. A sudden change of administration released him from this danger, and brought him into employment. Through the patronage of Lord Melville, he was appointed to the superintendence of a scheme for destroying a fleet by means never before heard of. The experiment was ludicrously termed the Catamaran expedition; but two vessels were very effectually destroyed by it off Boulogne in 1804. An attack on a larger scale was afterwards attempted at Fort Conge, which disappointed public expectation.

In 1806 he commanded the naval part of the force sent against the Cape of Good Hope. Shortly after, with a body of troops under General Beresford, he proceeded to Rio de la Plata, and captured Buenos Ayres. The enemy, however, soon retook the city; and on his return to England, Sir Home Popham, whose friends had quitted office, was brought to a court-martial, by which he was severely repri manded, "for having, without any direction or authority whatever, withdrawn the whole naval force under his command at the Cape, for the purpose of attacking the Spanish settlements."

He was, however, shortly afterwards appointed captain of the fleet sent out under Admiral Gambier against the Danes; and on the 8th of January, 1808, he received a valuable sword from the corporation of London, with the freedom of the city. In 1809 he served in the expedition against Flushing. During the peninsular war he was actively employed in the Venerable, on the north-west coast of Spain, and he subsequently conveyed Lord Moira in the Stirling to the East Indies. After having been made a colonel of marines, he was advanced on the 4th of June, 1814, to the rank of rear-admiral of the White, and hoisted his flag as commander-in-chief in the river Thames. In 1819 he commanded on the Jamaica station, and became rear-admiral of the Red. At the time of his death, which took place on the 11th of September, 1820, he was groom of the bed-chamber to the duke of Gloucester, and a fellow of the Royal society.

His scientific acquirements are stated to have been more than respectable. He produced an improved telegraph and code of signals, which, in 1815, was adopted on the coast from the Land's End to Bridport.

Sir David Dundas.

BORN A. D. 1737.-DIED A. d. 1820.

DAVID DUNDAS, a native of Edinburgh, and the son of a merchant, is said to have been originally destined for the medical profession, which, however, he thought fit to abandon. After having been two years a student at the Woolwich military academy, he entered on his military career under the auspices of his uncle, General David Watson, quarter-master-general under William, Duke of Cumberland. This officer was an able engineer; he made a survey of the Highlands of Scotland, and planned and inspected the military road through it. this relation young Dundas was appointed an assistant, and had the further advantage of having for his coadjutor the celebrated mathe matician, William Roy, from whom it may be supposed that Dundas derived much information.

In 1759, when Colonel Elliot, afterwards Lord Heathfield, obtained a letter of service to raise a regiment of dragoons, Lieutenant Dundas was promoted to a troop in it. When the British cabinet determined upon attacking the Spanish foreign settlements, among which the Havannah was the principal, General Elliot was appointed to the staff, and Captain Dundas embarked with him as his aid-de-camp. After the reduction of the island of Cuba in 1762, he returned with the general to England, and remained as aid-de-camp till he received the majority of the 15th dragoons, on the 28th of May, 1770. From that corps he was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 2d regiment of horse on the Irish establishment, now the 5th dragoon guards. In February, 1781, he obtained the rank of colonel.

Shortly after the peace of 1783, the great Frederick of Prussia having ordered a grand review of the whole of his forces, the curiosity and attention of military men were excited by so splendid an exhibition Colonel Dundas applied for leave to be present on this occasion, which

both sides having been examined in the course of the same day, the court broke up, and on assembling again next morning, pronounced sentence, in substance as follows:-"That the admiral was acquitted of the first two charges, and that the third not being proved, he was acquitted of that also." This event deprived his country of the services of an excellent officer during a period of nearly five years; for, thinking himself ill-used upon the occasion, he immediately struck his flag, and, notwithstanding he was included in the promotion that took place in 1799, and in consequence of which he obtained the rank of admiral of the Blue, yet he declined the acceptance of any command so long as a certain nobleman presided at the head of the admiralty board.

No sooner, however, had Earl St Vincent, who had so nobly led the fleets of his country, been appointed to superintend their exertions, than Cornwallis was selected to the high and important station of commander-in-chief of the channel fleet, and accordingly hoisted his flag on board the Ville de Paris, in February, 1801. Brest being the principal naval arsenal of France adjoining Great Britain, and in most respects superior to Toulon, which is chiefly calculated for operations in the Mediterranean, it has always been the policy of this country to watch the motions of the fleets there. To render the blockade more effectual, it is usual to divide the fleet in the following manner :-First, What is termed an in-shore squadron, consisting of frigates, occupies such a station as to be able to watch all the motions of the enemy, peep occasionally into the inner harbour, and give the appointed signal in case of alarm. The out-shore squadron consists of the main body of the fleet, ready, upon the least intimation of danger, to afford succour to the vessels on the look-out, and give the enemy battle, should they dare to venture from Brest water. It is also usual to station the detachments off Rochefort, Belleisle, and L'Orient, on purpose to keep those ports in check; but such precautions are adopted that they can be recalled at a short notice, so that the whole collected fleet may be enabled to encounter any great and sudden danger.

In 1806 Admiral Cornwallis retired from the service on account of bad health. For a number of years he represented the borough of Eye in Suffolk, and at one period was member for Portsmouth. Three years before his death, which took place in 1819, he was created a knight-commander of the Bath.

Cornwallis was a talented and courageous officer. It is related of him, that when in the Canada, his crew having declared, by a round robin, that they would not fire a gun until their wages-payment of which had by some accident been delayed-were discharged, he restored complete subordination by calmly addressing them in the following terms:-"My lads, the money cannot be paid until we return to port; and as to your threat, I have only to say, that I shall put you alongside the first enemy's ship I fall in with, and I'm sure the devil himself will not then keep you from fighting her."

staff, and, in the autumn of 1793, was sent to command a body of troops at Toulon. While we were in possession of that place, it was determined by Admiral Lord Hood and General O'Hara, to dislodge the French from the heights of Arenes, on which they had erected a battery of heavy cannon, and from whence Bonaparte, who commanded it, annoyed the town and citadel exceedingly. For this service General Dundas was selected, having under his command 2300 British allies. The approaches to the French lines were very strong and intricate; he had a bridge to cross, to march through olive-plantations, and ascend a hill cut in vine-terraces; yet, under all these disadvantages, he succeeded in taking the battery on the 20th of November. The French, however, who were very strong, attacked the assailants and dispossessed them of it, in consequence of which General Dundas was obliged to fall back on the town.

Shortly after his return the general was sent to the continent, to serve under the duke of York. In the action of the 10th of May, 1794, at Tournay, General Dundas distinguished himself greatly. During the unfortunate retreat through Holland he bore a very active part, particularly on the 30th of December, in taking Tuyl, where the French were strongly posted. In December, 1795, he was removed from the command of the 22d foot to that of the 7th dragoons. He was also appointed governor of Languardfort. On the resignation of General Morrison, from ill health, General Dundas was nominated quartermaster-general of the British army in 1797. When the army embarked on another expedition to Holland in 1799, Dundas was one of the general officers selected by the commander-in-chief, and in all the principal engagements in that strong country he had his full share, particularly those of Bergen and Alkmaar, on the 2d and 6th of October.

On the death of Sir Ralph Abercromby, General Dundas succeeded him in the command of the 2d or North British dragoons. He also succeeded him in the government of Forts George and Augustus, in North Britain. In the summer of 1801 he was second in command under the commander-in-chief of the grand army which was formed on Bagshot heath.

On the 12th of March, 1803, he resigned the quarter-master-generalship, and was put on the staff, as second in command under the duke of York. His majesty was pleased also, as a particular mark of his royal regard, to invest him with the order of the Bath.

On the resignation of the duke, Sir David was appointed commanderin-chief, and held this important office until the duke's restoration to his military honours. In 1813 he was appointed colonel of the 1st or king's regiment of dragoon guards, but thenceforth took little share in military affairs during the remainder of his life, which terminated on the 18th of February, 1820.

The reputation of Sir David Dundas rests principally on his abilities as a tactician. He was much respected by the army, and esteemed in private life.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »