A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Beauclerk, Amelius
BEAUCLERK, Lord, G.C.B., G.C.H., F.R.S. (Admiral of the Red, 1830.)
The Right Honourable Lord Amelius Beauclerk was born in 1771, and died 10 Dec. 1846, at his seat, Winkfield House. He was third and eldest surviving son of Aubrey, fifth Duke of St. Albans, by Lady Catherine Ponsonby, daughter of William, second Earl of Besborough, and grand-daughter of William, third Duke of Devonshire. He was uncle of the present Duke of St. Albans, and of the two officers whose memoirs immediately follow.
This officer entered the Navy, in June, 1782, on board the Jackall cutter, Lieut.-Commander Bailley; served next for two years in the Salisbury 50, bearing the flag of vice-Admiral John Campbell, on the Newfoundland station; and subsequently attended Commodore Gardner to the West Indies. He became, in 1789, Acting-Lieutenant of the Europa 50; obtained his first commission 21 Sept. 1790; was employed for some time in the Swiftsure 74, and Druid 32; at the commencement of the war accompanied Lord Hood to the Mediterranean; was then posted into the Nemesis 28, by commission bearing date 16 Sept. 1793; and, in the course of the same month, was present with the force under Commodore Robt. Linzee in the expedition to Corsica, where he witnessed the reduction of the tower of Forneilli. Removing, about March, 1794, to the command of the Juno 32, Lord Amelius Beauclerk had the good fortune, singly, to defeat a small squadron, near the Hières Islands, consisting of a French frigate of the same name, mounting 36 guns, a corvette, and a brig; shortly after which achievement he conveyed to Vice-Admiral Hotham the intelligence of the enemy’s fleet having sailed from Toulon, and was sent by that officer with the despatches containing the announcement to Lord Hood, then at the blockade of Bastia. We next find him, towards the close of 1795, in company with the Argo 44, safely convoying, from Gibraltar, a fleet of 32 homeward-bound merchantmen;[1] and on his arrival in England, appointed to the Dryad, of 44 guns and 251 men, stationed on the coast of Ireland. In that ship, his lordship, on 13 June, 1796, captured, with the loss only of 2 men killed and 7 wounded, after a close and spirited action of 45 minutes, the French frigate La Proserpine, of 42 guns and 348 men, of whom 30 were slain and 45 wounded;[2] and he subsequently, when cruizing with great activity and Success, took the following privateers – Le Vanteur, of 9 guns and 78 men, L’Eclair, of 14 guns and 108 men, La Cornélie, of 90 men. La Brune, of 16 guns and 180 men, and Le Mars, of 16 guns. About the end of 1800, Lord Amelius Beauclerk commissioned the Fortunée, of 40 guns, in which frigate, until the conclusion of hostilities, he served, in the Channel (where he took La Mascarade privateer, of 12 guns and 40 men), and in attendance on George III. at Weymouth. At the recommencement of the war, he was appointed to the Majestic 74, also employed with the fleet in the Channel; and he afterwards obtained command, in the summer of 1805, of the Saturn 74, and, in the early part of 1809, of the Royal Oak 74. In the ensuing expedition to the Walcheren, he exclusively superintended with great skill the debarkation of Lord Chatham’s army; and, during the absence of Sir Rich. Strachan with the army at Flushing, assumed the government of Campvere and the charge of the fleet and storeships in the Roompot.[3] On 31 July, 1810, his lordship was made Colonel of Marines. He became a Rear-Admiral 1 Aug. 1811, and was, at the same time, invested with a command in the North Sea. In 1813 he sailed in command of a squadron for the North Cape, for the purpose of intercepting the American Commodore Rodgers, who had, however, previously left that quarter. Towards the close of the war, we find him commanding the force in the Basque Roads, and negociating with the Baron de la Baffiniere, commander-in-chief at Rochelle, for a suspension of hostilities against those parts of the French coast which were amicably disposed to acknowledge the authority of Louis XVIII.[4] Lord Amelius Beauclerk, who had been elected a F.R.S. 7 Dec. 1809, was nominated a K.C.B. 2 Jan. 1815, and promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral 12 Aug. 1819. He held the chief command off Lisbon from 1824 until 1827; became a full Admiral 22 July, 1830; was created a G.C.H. 29 March, 1831, and a G.C.B. 4 Aug. 1835; commanded in chief at Plymouth from 27 April, 1836, until April, 1839; and on 4 Aug. following, was appointed First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to William IV., which honourable appointment he continued to hold under her present Majesty until the period of his death. At the respective funerals of George IV. and William IV. the Admiral officiated as an assistant supporter of the canopy over the royal body. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.