A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Church, John
CHURCH. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 14; h-p., 25.)
John Church was born 31 Oct. 1793.
This officer entered the Navy 23 Oct. 1808, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Bellerophon 74, Capt. Sam. Warren, flag-ship of Lord Gardner in the Downs; and on subsequently removing with the former officer, as Midshipman, to the President 38, assisted at the reduction of the island of Java in Aug. and Sept. 1811. From 1813 until the receipt of his commission, 23 June, 1815, he further served with Capt. Warren, in the Blenheim 74, and with Capt. Thos. Burton and Rear-Admiral Hon. Chas. Elphinstone Fleeming, in the Aquilon 32, and Elizabeth 74, on the Mediterranean station, off Lisbon, and at Gibraltar. His after-appointments were – 4 March, 1818, and 25 Feb. 1819, to the Ferret and Helicon, each of 10 guns, commanded by Capt. Wm. Robt. Ashley Pettman, on the Home station – 28 Nov. 1823, to the Phaeton 38, Capt. Henry Evelyn Pitfield Sturt, whom he accompanied to America and the Mediterranean – and, 21 June, 1826, as First-Lieutenant, to the Clio 18, Capts. Robt. Aitchison and Robt. Deans, employed on the coast of Scotland. In Nov. 1827, Mr. Church unfortunately suffered a severe injury in his sight, which in a few months terminated in total blindness. He was, in consequence, admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 6 Dec. 1833.