A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Elliot, George (a)
ELLIOT, C.B., F.R.S. (Rear-Admiral of the Red, 1837. f-p., 26; h-p., 27.)
The Honourable George Elliot, born 1 Aug. 1784, is second son of Gilbert, first Earl of Minto (who at different periods filled the important posts of Governor of Corsica, Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Vienna, President of the Board of Control, and Governor-General of Bengal), by Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Sir Geo. Amyand, Bart.; brother of the present Earl of Minto; brother-in-law of the late Lieut.-General Sir Rufane Shawe Donkin, K.C.B., G.C.H., and of the present Sir John Peter Boileau, Bart.; and uncle of Capt. Hon. C. G. J. B. Elliot, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 4 June, 1794, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the St. George 98, Capt. Thos. Foley, with whom he served the whole of his time in that ship, and in the Britannia 100, and Goliah and Elephant 74’s. The St. George, during that period, bore the flag of Sir Hyde Parker in Hotham’s actions of 14 March and 13 July, 1795, and the Britannia of Sir Chas. Thompson in the battle off Cape St. Vincent, 14 Feb. 1797. The Goliath, on the glorious 1 Aug. 1798, had the honour of leading the British fleet into action. Mr. Elliot, who obtained his first commission 12 Aug. 1800, next served for short periods in the Kangaroo sloop, Capt. Geo. Christopher Pulling, and in the San Josef and St. George, flag-ships of Lord Nelson and Sir Chas. Morice Pole, in the latter of which, under Capt. Thos. Masterman Hardy, he witnessed the action off Copenhagen, 2 April, 1801. Attaining the rank of Commander, 14 April, 1802, he was appointed, in 1803, to the Termagant sloop, in the Mediterranean, where we find him posted, 2 Jan. 1804, into the Maidstone 32. Until the conclusion of the war, in 1814, Capt. Elliot’s subsequent appointments were – 23 Feb. and 10 July, 1805, to the Combatant 20, and Aurora 28, employed in the Downs and Mediterranean – and 29 Oct. 1806, and 17 Aug. 1812, to the Modeste 36, and Hussar 38, both on the East India station. In Oct. 1808, he captured La Jena, French national corvette, of 18 guns and 150 men, after a running action of nearly an hour, in which the Modeste had her Master killed and one seaman wounded;[1] and in the summer of 1805 he commanded the Aurora in an action of three hours with some Spanish gun-boats near Tarifa, three of which he captured. At the reduction of Java, in Aug. 1811, Capt. Elliot superintended the landing of the troops;[2] and, in June, 1813, he joined in a serious attack on the pirates of Sambas, in Borneo. He subsequently assisted Colonel Macgregor in re-installing the Sultan of Palambang, and received the thanks of his Commander-in-Chief for the judicious and excellent arrangements made by him on that occasion. Capt. Elliot, whose next appointment was, 30 April, 1827, to the Victory 104, guard-ship at Portsmouth, the command of which he retained during the usual period of three years, assumed Flag-rank 10 Jan. 1837, and on 25 Sept. following was nominated Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope. Being transferred, 15 Feb. 1840, to the chief command in the East Indies, the Rear-Admiral sailed for China, where, in the additional capacity of Joint-Plenipotentiary with Capt. Chas. Elliot, R.N., he superintended the earlier operations of the war, from 7 July to 30 Nov. in the same year. He then invalided home on board the Volage 26, and, since 1841, has been on half-pay.
Rear-Admiral Elliot is General of the Mint in Scotland. He was nominated a Naval Aide-de-camp to William IV. 4 Aug. 1830, and a C.B. 26 Sept. 1831. From 24 Dec. 1834, until April, 1835, he filled the office of First Secretary to the Admiralty, and, from the latter date until his appointment to the chief command at the Cape, that of a Lord at the same Board. He married, in 1810, Eliza Cecilia, youngest daughter of Jas. Ness, Esq., of Osgodvie, co. York, and has had issue five sons and five daughters. Of the former, George, the eldest, is a Capt. R.N., and the second, Gilbert George, an officer in the 47th Regt. The third son, Horatio Foley, died a Lieutenant R.N., as we have recorded in the proper place. The Rear-Admiral’s two eldest daughters are respectively married, the one to the Earl of Northesk, and the other to Commander Lord Wm. Compton, R.N. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.