A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Dixon, William Henry
DIXON. (Lieutenant, 1807. f-p., 32; h-p., 16.)
William Henry Dixon was born 12 Aug. 1786, at Rochester, co. Kent.
This officer entered the Navy, 9 Feb. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Stag 32, Capt. Joseph Sydney Yorke, employed as a cruizer in the Bay of Biscay. He continued to serve with the same officer, in the Jason 36, and, as Midshipman, in the Canada 74, on the Channel station, until May, 1802; between which period and May, 1806, he next successively joined, in the Mediterranean and West Indies, the Donegal 74, Capts. Sir Rich. John Strachan and Pulteney Malcolm, the Northumberland 74, flag-ship of Sir Alex. Cochrane, and the Dolphin, commanded, we believe, by Capt. Isaac Ferrieres. He was then appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the Demerara 12, Lieut.-Commander Wm. Paterson; and on his subsequent return to England obtained a full Lieutenancy, 25 May, 1807, in the Challenger 16, Capt. Wm. Barnham Rider. His succeeding appointments appear to have been – 25 Nov. 1807, to the Crescent 36, Capt. Jas. Carthew – 30 May, 1808, to the Bombay 74, Capt. Wm. Cuming – 14 Dec. 1808, to the Dannemark 74, Capt. Jas. Bissett – 8 June, 1810, to the Prince of Orange 74, bearing the flag in the Downs of Admiral Campbell – 27 Feb. 1811, to the Helder 36, Capt. John Serrell – and, 6 Feb. 1812 and 22 Dec. 1813, as First-Lieutenant, to the Britomart 10, Capt. Wm. B. Hunt, and Devastation 10, Capt. Thos. Alexander. After attending, in the Dannemark, the expedition to the Walcheren, Mr. Dixon, on 10 July, 1811, took command of a boat belonging to the Helder, and cut out four Danish vessels from under the protection of a 6-gun battery and two gun-boats in Kioge Bay. When in the Britomart, he was recommended for promotion for his conduct in similarly capturing, off Heligoland, with three boats under his orders, and a collective loss to the British of 3 men killed and 10 wounded, L’Eole French privateer, pierced for 14 guns, but carrying only 6, with a complement of 31 men, of whom 2 were killed and 7 wounded, 17 July, 1812.[1] In the course of the same and the following month we again find him commanding a boat in an attack on the batteries at Spikeroog, where he sustained a loss of 1 man killed and another wounded, and at the cutting out of two vessels from beneath the protection of 20 gun-boats in the river Ems. On being appointed to the Devastation, Mr. Dixon sailed for North America, where, among other Chesapeake operations, he was present, in Aug. 1814, at the storming of Fort Washington and the capitulation of Alexandria. On her return from the latter place down the Potomac, the Devastation took the ground, and was only preserved by the greatest exertions from being destroyed by the enemy. Lieut. Dixon – who invalided home on 30 Sept. 1814, and was afterwards employed, from 16 Feb. 1816 to 29 May, 1828, as Assistant-Superintendent of the quarantine at Standgate Creek – has been in command, since 15 Nov. 1841, of the Semaphore station at Kingston.
He married 3 Aug. 1815, and has issue 11 children. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 1540.