A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Fellowes, Thomas
FELLOWES, Kt., C.B., K.C.C., K.L.H., K.S.A., K.R.G. (Captain, 1811. f-p., 25; h-p., 25.)
Sir Thomas Fellowes, born in 1778, at Minorca, is fifth and youngest son of the late Dr. Wm. Fellowes. of Bath, Physician Extraordinary to George IV. when Prince Regent, by the eldest daughter of Peregrine Butler, Esq., of Dungarvon, co. Waterford. He is brother of Sir Jas. Fellowes, Kt., M.D., F.R.S., who served as Inspector of Hospitals to the British army during the Peninsular war; and of Wm. Dorset Fellowes, Esq., formerly Commander in the Navy, who officiated as Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain at the Coronation of George IV. His eldest sister, on the latter occasion, led the royal procession to Westminster Abbey in the character of Principal Herb Woman.
This officer (who had previously been a Midshipman in the Hon.E.I.Co.’s service) entered the Navy, towards the close of 1797, as Master’s Mate, on board the Royal George 100, Capt. Wm. Domett, bearing the flag in the Channel of Lord Bridport. After cruizing for some time on the Irish station as Acting-Lieutenant of the Diana 38, Capt. Jonathan Faulknor, he proceeded to the West Indies as Master’s Mate of the Crescent 36, Capt. Wm. Grenville Lobb, and there, within sight of a Spanish line-of-battle ship and frigate, assisted at the capture, 15 Nov. 1799, of the corvette El Galgo of 16 guns. Until discharged at the peace, Mr. Fellowes further served on the same station as Master’s Mate of the Queen 98, and Sans Pareil 80, flag-ships of Sir Hyde Parker and Lord Hugh Seymour, and as Acting-Lieutenant of the Cumberland 74, Capt. Wm. Henry Bayntun, Snake sloop, Capt. Wm. Roberts, and Carnatic 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Robt. Montagu. From the recommencement of hostilities until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, 29 June, 1807, we find him employed in the East and West Indies on board the Culloden 74, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Pellew, Howe frigate, Capt. Edw. Ratsey, Cornwallis and Hindostan 50’s, Capts. Chas. Jas. Johnston and Alex. Fraser, and Acasta 40, Capt. Philip Beaver. He then for a short period joined the Northumberland 74, bearing the flag of Sir Alex. Cochrane; and during a subsequent attachment of several months to the Melville sloop, Capt. Hon. Jas. Wm. King, assisted at the reduction of the Danish West India islands. Being next appointed to the command of the Swinger gun-brig, Lieut. Fellowes, in March, 1808, contributed to the capture of the island of Deseada, where, with only 40 men under his orders, he landed and compelled 70 regular troops and militia to lay down their arms as prisoners of war. Subsequently to that event, in charge of two boats, he captured, and, after an exposure of 14 hours to the joint fire of the enemy’s batteries and of a large privateer, destroyed, in Bay Mahout, Guadeloupe, L’Alert letter-of-marque, mounting 6 carriage-guns and 4 swivels, with a complement of 40 men. Assuming command, 13 Nov. 1808, of the Unique brig, of 14 guns and 75 men, he served at the capture of the Saintes; and on 21 May, 1809, while at the blockade of Basseterre, he landed with 24 men, spiked the guns of a battery, seized the enemy’s colours in the presence of five times his own number of regular troops, and then retired with a loss of 1 Midshipman killed and 7 men severely wounded.[1] The Unique being destroyed as a fire-ship on 31 of the same month, in a frustrated attempt made to annihilate the French frigates Furieuse and Félicité, Capt. Fellowes, whose services in that vessel and the Swinger were rewarded with a Commander’s commission dated 16 Sept. 1809, remained on half-pay until 2 Aug. 1810, when he was appointed to the chief command, under Sir Rich. Goodwin Keats, of the whole Cadiz flotilla, consisting of 30 sail of gun-boats. From 15 Nov. following, at which period he was superseded by Capt. Robt. Hall, until 22 April, 1811, he commanded one half of that force, but he then resumed the chief control, and continued to hold it until the ensuing June. For several months during that period Capt. Fellowes appears to have been in daily collision with the enemy. On 23 Nov. 1810 [errata 1], for the purpose of creating a diversion in favour of an attack upon some gun-vessels in the river of Santa Maria, he successfully drew upon himself and engaged for seven hours and a half [errata 2], with great zeal, the attention and fire of Fort Catalina;[2] and on 6 March, 1811, he further distinguished himself by his gallantry in storming a 4-gun battery, surrounded by a ditch and spiked stockade, at the entrance of Port Santa Maria, under a heavy fire of grape from the neighbouring works.[3] In June of the latter year, having been promoted to Post-rank on 4 of the previous March, Capt. Fellowes, as above stated, resigned the command of the Cadiz flotilla. From 11 Feb. 1812, until Nov. 1814, he next commanded the Fawn 20, in which ship he recaptured the Perthshire letter-of-marque, of 14 guns; and, on 11 Jan. 1813, he destroyed, after a long and arduous chase, the Rosamond a notorious American privateer, of 8 heavy guns and 105 men, near Puerto Cabello. For his conduct in escorting a fleet of merchantmen from Cork to Barbadoes, he received a handsome letter of thanks from the masters of the convoy; as, for “his zeal and ability in driving away the enemies of peace and commerce,” he likewise did from the Captain-General of the Caraccas. The Governor of Curaçoa, Major-General Hodgson, also acknowledged Capt. Fellowes’ “zealous and active exertions;” and the merchants of that island presented him with a piece of place. Being afterwards appointed to the command, 21 Feb. 1827, of the Dartmouth 42, he sailed for the Mediterranean with the duplicate of the treaty between Great Britain, France, and Russia, for the protection of Greece. On the occasion of the battle of Navarin, which took place on 20 Oct. in the same year, Capt Fellowes was intrusted with the care of six fire-ships and of four other vessels, with whose able assistance he appears to have saved La Sirène, the French Admiral’s flag-ship, from destruction.[4] Indeed his gallantry was so conspicuous that on his return to England he received the honour of knighthood, 13 Feb. 1828. He paid off the Dartmouth 16 March, 1830; and since that period has been successively appointed – 25 March, 1836, and 25 Jan. 1837, to the Pembroke 74, and Vanguard 80, on the Lisbon and Mediterranean stations – and, 6 Feb. 1843, to the Superintendentship of the Royal Naval Hospital and Victualling Yard at Plymouth, a post he still holds.
Sir Thos. Fellowes, who is Senior Captain of the year 1811, was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815, created a Knight of the Spanish Order of King Charles III. for his distinguished intrepidity at Cadiz 22 Feb. 1822, and presented after the battle of Navarin with the insignia of the Legion of Honour, the Second Class of St. Anne of Russia, and the Redeemer of Greece. On 30 Nov. 1841, he was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen. He married, first, 9 Nov. 1813, Katherine Mary, eldest daughter of the late Sir Wm. Abdy, Bart., Captain, R.N., by whom, who died in Oct. 1817, he had one son, the present Lieut. W. A. Fellowes, R.N., and two daughters; and, secondly, 24 Aug. 1819, Mary Anne Catharine, only child of the late Isaac Humphreys, Esq., Colonel of the Bengal Artillery, and Military Secretary to that Government, by which marriage he has also issue. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.
- ↑ The Unique’s boat on this occasion, being completely riddled, sank under Lieut. Fellowes; one musket-ball passed through his hat, another struck the pike in his hand, and his jacket was shot through in two places; yet, strange though it may seem, he was the only person of the party who escaped altogether unhurt. When afterwards employed at the defence of Cadiz, he served on board the Watchful, a small vessel, out of whose cabin (7 feet long, and 3 high, and intended for the use of himself and a midshipman) he never slept, from Sept. 1810 until June, 1811.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 2061.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1811, p. 552.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1827, p. 2322.