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Charles Richardson (Royal Navy officer)

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For other people named Charles Richardson, see Charles Richardson (disambiguation).
Sir Charles Richardson
Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Richardson
BornBaptized 10 March 1769
Shap, Westmorland
Died10 November 1850, age 83
Painsthorpe Hall, Yorkshire
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service1787–1850
RankVice-Admiral of the White
Commands heldHMS Alligator
HMS Centaur
HMS Caesar
HMS Semiramis
HMS Leander
HMS Topaze
Battles/warsThird Anglo-Mysore War

French Revolutionary War

Napoleonic Wars

AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath
Order of the Crescent
Naval General Service Medal with four clasps

Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Richardson KCB (c.10 March 1769 – 10 November 1850) was a Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Richardson joined HMS Vestal as a captain's servant in 1787. In Vestal he made an aborted journey to China before serving on the East Indies Station where he transferred to HMS Phoenix and fought in the Battle of Tellicherry and Third Anglo-Mysore War. Having returned to England as a master's mate, Richardson fought at the Glorious First of June on HMS Royal George before being promoted to lieutenant in HMS Circe. In Circe he successfully combatted the Nore Mutiny before fighting in the Battle of Camperdown where he personally secured the Dutch admiral Jan Willem de Winter. Afterwards he became flag lieutenant to Admiral Adam Duncan and fought on land at the Battle of Callantsoog and Vlieter Incident in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. He then sailed to Egypt in HMS Kent where he again went onshore, fighting in the battles of Abukir, Mandora, and Alexandria.

Promoted to commander in July 1801, Richardson was given command of the en flute HMS Alligator and after the Napoleonic Wars began in 1803 he was sent to the Leeward Islands Station, where he captured three Dutch settlements in September. Richardson then made a valuable contribution in the Battle of Suriname in the following year for which he was given command of HMS Centaur and promoted to post-captain. Leaving Centaur in 1805 he received at the start of the next year command of HMS Caesar. In Caesar Richardson fought at the battles of Les Sables-d'Olonne and the Basque Roads before joining the Walcheren Campaign in 1809, where he took command of a naval brigade. In the following year he was given command of HMS Semiramis in the English Channel; cooperating with HMS Diana he fought an action against two French warships and a small convoy off the Gironde that was complimented by Spencer Perceval.

Leaving Semiramis in 1815, Richardson's next command came in 1819 as captain of HMS Leander on the East Indies Station. He transferred to HMS Topaze in 1821 and sailed to China, where his crew killed two Chinese locals in self defence. The resulting diplomatic incident was settled at the start of the following year but caused such a strain on Richardson's health that he invalided home in October 1821. This was his last service in the Royal Navy, but he continued to be promoted and became a vice-admiral in 1847, having been nominated a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1841. He died of influenza at his home at Painsthorpe in 1850.

Early life

Charles Richardson was probably born at Barker Hill in the parish of Shap, in Westmorland.[1] He was baptized on 10 March 1769.[2] Until the age of fifteen Richardson was educated at the village of Bampton.[3] While little is recorded of Richardson's family, he was related to Sir Francis Lindley Wood of Yorkshire.[4] Richardson's father, whose name is not recorded, was an officer in the Royal Navy. He was killed at the Battle of Trincomalee in 1782 and buried at Fort St. George, where his grave would be visited by Richardson while he served on that station in later years.[5][6]

Naval career

Early career

Richardson joined the Royal Navy as a captain's servant (a rank given to young men awaiting an opening to become a midshipman) on board the 28-gun frigate HMS Vestal, commanded by Captain Sir Richard Strachan, a contemporary of his father, on 23 November 1787.[Note 1][5][8][9] Soon after this Vestal was sent to China to convey Charles Allan Cathcart so that he could open diplomatic channels with the Chinese.[8][9] Cathcart was heavily ill before he began the mission and his health declined more on board Vestal; Richardson was charged with reading to him and keeping him company, and Cathcart agreed that upon reaching China Richardson would become his aide de camp.[10] This position never eventuated because Cathcart died in the Bangka Strait en route in 1788.[8][9] On 29 August 1789 Vestal and Richardson were again sent far abroad, this time to India conveying Major-General William Medows to his new post as Governor of Bombay.[11][7][9] Having stayed on the East Indies Station after this, in April 1791 Strachan transferred to the command of the 36-gun frigate HMS Phoenix and took Richardson with him.[8][12]

On 19 November Phoenix was sailing with the 36-gun frigate HMS Perseverance off the Malabar Coast when they stopped two French merchant vessels to search them. The merchants were being protected by the French 42-gun frigate Résolue, and this ship opened fire on the British vessels in resistance to their attempts to search the ships.[Note 2] The British ships attacked the frigate and forced her to surrender after killing twenty-five of her crew in an engagement in which Phoenix herself had only six men killed. By this time in mainland India the Third Anglo-Mysore War had begun, and Richardson was after the battle given command of Phoenix's boats to coordinate with the army of Major-General Sir Robert Abercromby in operations on a number of rivers against Tipu Sultan. Richardson was employed in this role for several months before he re-joined Phoenix.[8][14]

HMS Royal George, in which Richardson fought his first fleet action

Phoenix returned to England in August 1793, Richardson having been promoted to midshipman and then master's mate by this time.[8][12] Here he left the frigate, and joined instead the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Alexander on 28 December, serving in Admiral Lord Howe's Channel Fleet.[8][15] While on board Alexander Richardson passed his examination for promotion to lieutenant.[16][14] The captain of Alexander, Captain Thomas West, had expected to give the position filled by Richardson to his nephew, and ordered his officers to find a reason to remove Richardson from the ship to ensure this. Richardson heard of the plan at the start of 1794 and successfully demanded his discharge from Alexander. He took a boat to another ship of the line in the fleet, the 100-gun HMS Royal George.[14][17] Royal George was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Hood, and Hood took Richardson on as a master's mate in that vessel.[17] Richardson fought in Royal George at the action of 29 May 1794 and then at the subsequent Glorious First of June in both of which the ship was heavily engaged, having ninety-two casualties.[8][18][19] On 4 August of the same year he was promoted to lieutenant and sent to join the 28-gun frigate HMS Circe in Admiral Adam Duncan's North Sea Fleet.[8][18]

De Winter surrenders to Duncan, an event brought about by Richardson

In May 1797, Richardson now being the first lieutenant of Circe, his ship was caught in the Nore Mutiny. Richardson and the other ship's officers were able to stop the crew of Circe from gaining control of her by arming themselves and continually guarding the quarterdeck against attack, for which they were thanked by the Admiralty.[8][18][20] Until the mutiny was quashed Circe was one of only three vessels still serving in the North Sea Fleet, making signals to each other to pretend that they had more ships than they did.[21] Circe was subsequently employed in the squadron of Captain Henry Trollope to patrol off the Texel, and was then present at Duncan's Battle of Camperdown on 11 October of that year, where she served as a repeating frigate tasked with ensuring all ships received signals sent out by Duncan. As the battle came to a close the Dutch admiral Jan Willem de Winter's flagship Vrijheid had been dismasted and was lying silent. Richardson saw this and volunteered to go over to the Dutch vessel in one of Circe's boats to ensure that de Winter did not use the lack of attention being given his damaged ship to escape to another vessel. Successfully capturing the admiral, Richardson took him to Duncan.[8][18]

Richardson's action impressed Duncan, who in January 1798 took him to serve on his flagship, the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Venerable. Richardson then transferred with Duncan to the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Kent on 6 March, becoming his flag lieutenant there.[8][22] In 1799 Kent was sent to support the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland and Richardson was sent ashore with a division of seamen, with which he served as artillery attached to the army of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby. He fought as such in the landings of the army and at the Battle of Callantsoog on 27 August.[8][23][24] The Dutch admiral Samuel Story surrendered his fleet in the Vlieter Incident on 30 August, in which Richardson saw some action. He was given command of a captured Dutch 68-gun ship of the line, and sailed her to England, afterwards re-joining Kent.[8][23][25]

The Battle of Alexandria, at which Richardson served as aide de camp to Abercromby

In June 1800 Kent sailed to serve in the Mediterranean Sea, and after an attempt to reinforce Cadiz was abandoned due to disease in the port in December, she subsequently supported Abercromby again, this time in going to Egypt to begin the British response to the French campaign in Egypt and Syria in 1801.[8][26][27] Richardson was by this point first lieutenant of Kent, and he was given responsibility for landing some of Abercromby's army when they arrived and as such he fought at the Battle of Abukir on 8 March.[8][23][28] Richardson served as second in command to Captain Sir Sidney Smith in the naval brigade landed to assist the army, and he then fought at the Battle of Mandora on 13 March, where the brigade had eighty-five casualties.[29] Having come to the attention of Abercromby in both Holland and now Egypt, the general subsequently appointed Richardson as one of his aides de camp.[30] As such Richardson was present at the Battle of Alexandria on 21 March, where he served as a messenger.[31] The next day Richardson was transferred to the 36-gun frigate HMS Penelope, as her first lieutenant.[8][23][32] The frigate returned home to England and then took Captain Sir Alexander Ball to Malta in June.[23] On 12 July Richardson was given the acting rank of commander and command of the en flute (meaning that her main armament had been removed) 28-gun frigate HMS Alligator.[8] For his services in Egypt Richardson was awarded the gold medal second class of the Order of the Crescent by the Ottoman Empire.[33][32]

Commander

Richardson soon after being promoted to post-captain

Richardson was confirmed in his rank as a commander on 9 October 1802 and continued in command of Alligator, serving during the Peace of Amiens in the Firth of Forth.[8][34] In April 1803 he was sent to serve on the Leeward Islands Station, at the start of the Napoleonic Wars.[23] Richardson was then given control over the directions of a flotilla that peacefully captured the Dutch settlements of Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice in September.[8][35] On 27 September he shared in the capture of the Dutch 18-gun corvette Hippomenes.[36] He subsequently fought at the Battle of Suriname on 5 May 1804, where the Dutch colony of Surinam was captured; Alligator assisted in bringing the 64th Regiment of Foot ashore; Richardson then went ashore himself and with a mixed force of sailors and soldiers attacked two Dutch forts from inland, subsequently using them to fire down upon New Amsterdam. For his efforts in this endeavour he was highly praised in the dispatches sent home after the battle. In reward for this the commander-in-chief in the Leeward Islands, Commodore Sir Samuel Hood, gave him acting command of his flagship, the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Centaur, on 6 July. His promotion to post-captain in consequence of this was confirmed on 27 September of the same year.[8][37]

Post-captain

Richardson returned to England with Hood in March 1805 and soon after left the ship, going on leave to Westmorland where he purchased a small cottage and thirty-six acres of land and visited his relative, Sir Francis.[8][38][39] He was not unemployed for long and was given command of the 80-gun ship of the line HMS Caesar on 11 January 1806.[Note 3] Caesar became flagship to the now-Rear-Admiral Strachan, and Richardson his flag captain. Strachan's squadron was tasked with hunting a French squadron under Admiral Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez that had escaped from Brest, and after failing to catch that squadron in a chase that took them to Brazil and the Leeward Islands, Richardson served in Caesar in the blockading force off Rochefort until the squadron was sent to chase another French squadron in February 1808, this time of Rear-Admiral Zacharie Allemand, in the Mediterranean Sea. Again they were unable to engage their opponents, Allemand safely entering Toulon.[8][35][40]

Caesar then became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford. Under him Richardson fought at the Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne on 23 February 1809, where three French frigates were destroyed by the squadron against the shoreline, and at the Battle of the Basque Roads on 11 April of the same year, where the fleet's fireships assisted in destroying four ships of the line of the same fleet of the frigates. Caesar was little engaged in the latter battle because of her draught.[8][35][41] By July Strachan had returned to the squadron and again took Caesar as his flagship. Richardson thus sailed with the Walcheren Expedition to the Netherlands in the same month.[8] He went ashore on 30 July in command of a brigade of seamen, and a day later the gun boats of Strachan's squadron attacked the Dutch town of Camvere. When the ships were forced to halt their bombardment because of a change in the wind, Richardson set up a battery of rockets and commenced firing at the defensive positions around the town. Soon after this Camvere offered to surrender and Richardson went with the army's Lieutenant-General Alexander Fraser to negotiate terms.[42][43][44]

Flushing is bombarded during the Walcheren Campaign

The Dutch soldiers from Camvere were allowed to go to the nearby fortification of Fort Rammekens [nl]. Richardson and his men were thus employed in the bombardment of that place until it surrendered on 3 August.[45] On 12 August the expedition attacked Flushing and Richardson had his men man a battery of six 24-pounder cannon. On 14 August Richardson completed construction of his battery 600 yards from the town, and in two hours destroyed all the Dutch cannon facing him. Flushing surrendered later in the day after a continued bombardment.[46] His services during the expedition as a whole were highly appreciated by the army, and he received the thanks of the overall commander, Lieutenant-General Lord Chatham, the commander of the attack on Flushing, Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, and the commander of the Royal Artillery present, Major-General John Mcleod.[42]

On 21 April 1810 he transferred to the command of the 36-gun frigate HMS Semiramis in which he initially served in the English Channel and on the Lisbon Station.[8][47] While serving in the Channel on 24 August of the same year Richardson was in company with the 38-gun frigate HMS Diana off the Gironde when they encountered two French warships. These ships were anchored close to the coast and were protecting a small convoy of four ships. During the night the two British frigates sent their small boats in to the river where they successfully captured the convoy. In the morning Semiramis and Diana sailed towards the two French warships that remained outside the river, flying French colours to disguise themselves. This allowed Diana to get close enough to one of the French warships, the 14-gun gun brig Teazer (the ex-HMS Teazer), to board and capture her. This raised the alarm to the shore batteries and the other vessel, the 16-gun brig Pluvier. Richardson then attacked her as she attempted to make sail to defend herself, and through excellent seamanship he managed to force Pluvier aground at Royan. Despite the French warship lying under the guns of a friendly battery, he then succeeded in burning the vessel where it lay with his newly returned small boats. The captain of Diana, William Ferris, congratulated Richardson for the action.[42][48] Both officers were in turn congratulated by the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, for the "peculiar neatness with which they...conducted the business".[49]

After this Richardson continued in a successful run of prizetaking in Semiramis; at the beginning of 1812 he was sent to serve on the Irish Station, where he captured the French 14-gun privateer Grand Jean Bart on 29 February.[42][50] Richardson sailed in Semiramis to the Cape of Good Hope Station on 28 October. He left Semiramis on 29 August 1814 when she was paid off at Portsmouth in response to the ending of the Napoleonic Wars.[50][51][52] There being less commands available with the wars over, Richardson went on half pay, but was rewarded for his previous services on 4 July 1815 with his appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath. He received his next command, the 60-gun frigate HMS Leander, on 29 July 1819.[8][42]

Post-war service and retirement

Leander was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Blackwood, who had been Richardson's captain in Penelope and had now been given command of the East Indies Station. Richardson served in Leander on the station and while there on 29 July 1821 he left Leander to instead command the 44-gun frigate HMS Topaze, whose captain had died on station.[8][51] In Topaze he sailed from Pulo Penang to China to serve as a buffer between Chinese authorities and British merchants.[53] Upon arriving at Canton his crew created a severe diplomatic incident after firing on and killing two locals who were part of a group attacking Topaze's watering party on Lintin Island. The Chinese authorities reacted by demanding Richardson give up one his crew to be executed, and upon Richardson refusing this demand they suspended all trade between the two nations at Canton and forcefully removed all British merchants and East India Company ships.[42][54] As tensions rose soon after, a Chinese war junk made an aborted attempt to attack Topaze, and Richardson in response closed with Canton and anchored in the river, threatening Chinese trade. A Chinese mandarin was sent on board Topaze by his government soon afterwards, and through discussion with Richardson the situation was successfully resolved and tensions deescalated on 20 February 1822.[51][55] Richardson sailed from China at the end of the month and re-joined Leander as her captain on 23 May. Through the events at Canton Richardson's mental state had severely deteriorated, and on 14 October of the same year with his health in a "very dangerous state" he was invalided home via the Cape of Good Hope, also suffering from a severe fever.[8][51][56]

This was Richardson's last active service in the Royal Navy, but he continued to be rewarded and promoted in retirement, becoming a rear-admiral on 10 January 1837, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 29 June 1841, and a vice-admiral on 17 December 1847.[Note 4][42] In the same year he received the Naval General Service Medal with clasps for the Glorious First of June, Camperdown, Egypt, and the Basque Roads.[58] Richardson had a house built for himself in around 1815, Painsthorpe House in Yorkshire, but never married, living there instead with retainers including the coxswain who had served with him at Alexandria. He died at Painsthorpe on 10 November 1850, aged eighty-three, from a severe bout of influenza.[59][60][61][62]

Notes and citations

Notes

  1. ^ Also recorded as joining as a midshipman.[7]
  2. ^ While both British frigates attacked Résolue, she only fired at Phoenix.[13]
  3. ^ Also recorded as 2 January.[35]
  4. ^ Full dates of promotion: rear-admiral of the blue 10 January 1837, rear-admiral of the white 23 November 1841, rear-admiral of the red 9 November 1846, vice-admiral of the blue 17 December 1847, vice-admiral of the white 9 October 1849.[57]

Citations

  1. ^ Atkinson (1849), p. 270.
  2. ^ "Vice Admiral C Richardson". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  3. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 138.
  4. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 142.
  5. ^ a b Armstrong (1855), p. 2.
  6. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 16.
  7. ^ a b Marshall (1825), p. 902.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac O'Byrne (1849), p. 974.
  9. ^ a b c d Marshall (1823d), p. 284.
  10. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 5.
  11. ^ Winfield (2007), p. 1109.
  12. ^ a b Winfield (2007), p. 974.
  13. ^ Marshall (1824), p. 324.
  14. ^ a b c Marshall (1825), p. 903.
  15. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 21.
  16. ^ Winfield (2007), p. 389.
  17. ^ a b Armstrong (1855), p. 22.
  18. ^ a b c d Marshall (1825), pp. 903–904.
  19. ^ Marshall (1823a), p. 246.
  20. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 57.
  21. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 54.
  22. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 85.
  23. ^ a b c d e f Marshall (1825), p. 904.
  24. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 91.
  25. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 92.
  26. ^ Winfield (2008), p. 121.
  27. ^ Marshall (1823c), p. 512.
  28. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 103.
  29. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 113.
  30. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 114.
  31. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 117–118.
  32. ^ a b Armstrong (1855), p. 121.
  33. ^ Glendining and Co. (1933), p. 20.
  34. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 127.
  35. ^ a b c d Marshall (1825), p. 905.
  36. ^ Winfield (2007), p. 1115.
  37. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 129–132.
  38. ^ Winfield (2008), p. 116.
  39. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 140–142.
  40. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 150.
  41. ^ Marshall (1823b), p. 84.
  42. ^ a b c d e f g O'Byrne (1849), p. 975.
  43. ^ Marshall (1825), p. 906.
  44. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 194.
  45. ^ Marshall (1825), p. 907.
  46. ^ Marshall (1825), pp. 907–908.
  47. ^ Marshall (1825), p. 908.
  48. ^ Marshall (1825), pp. 908–909.
  49. ^ Marshall (1825), p. 909.
  50. ^ a b Winfield (2008), p. 398.
  51. ^ a b c d Marshall (1825), p. 910.
  52. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 201.
  53. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 206.
  54. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 214.
  55. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 217–219.
  56. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 220.
  57. ^ Syrett & DiNardo (1994), p. 378.
  58. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 225.
  59. ^ Urban (1851), p. 93.
  60. ^ "Painsthorpe Hall". Historic England. 30 June 2001. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  61. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 222.
  62. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 228.

References

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