A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Gardiner, Allen Francis
GARDINER. (Commander, 1826. f-p., 14; h-p., 25.)
Allen Francis Gardiner is youngest son of Sam. Gardiner, Esq., of Coombe Lodge, co. Oxford.
This officer entered the Royal Naval College in May, 1808, and embarked, 23 June, 1810, as a Volunteer, on board the Fortunée 36, Capt. Henry Vansittart, in which ship he proceeded to the Mediterranean with Rear-Admiral Thos. Fras. Fremantle. On next joining the Phoebe, of 44 guns and 271 men, he contributed, 20 May, 1811 (while cruizing off Madagascar in company with the Astrea and Galatea, frigates nearly equal in force to the Phoebe, and 18-gun brig Racehorse), to the capture – after a long and trying action with the French 40-gun frigates Renomée, Clorinde, and Nériéde, in which the Phoebe had 7 men killed and 24 wounded – of the Renomée. On 25 of the same month he was further present at the surrender of the Nériéde, and of the settlement of Tamatave; and in the following summer he co-operated in the reduction of the island of Java. Proceeding subsequently to the Pacific, the Phoebe, whose force then consisted of 46 guns and 300 men, succeeded, in company with the 18-gun sloop Cherub, in effecting the capture, 28 March, 1814 [errata 1], off Valparaiso, of the American frigate Essex, of 46 guns and 265 men, who only struck her colours at the close of a warm action of two hours, in which the Phoebe lost 4 men killed and 7 wounded, and the enemy 24 killed and 45 wounded. Mr. Gardiner (whose conduct on the occasion was the cause of his being officially recommended by his Captain to the notice of the Admiralty[1]) appears, in the capacity of Acting-Lieutenant, to have assisted in conducting the prize to England, and was confirmed by the Admiralty on 13 Dec. in the same year. He was afterwards appointed – 29 July, 1819, to the Leander 60, flagship in the East Indies of Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood – 11 May, 1820, to the Dauntless 24, Capt. Hon. Valentine Gardner, on the same station – 6 Feb. 1824, to the Jupiter 60, Capts. David Dunn and Sir Wm. Saltonstall Wiseman, at Halifax – and, 30 May, 1825, to the command of the Clinker 12, which vessel he paid off on his return from the latter station in Aug. 1826. He was advanced to the rank of Commander 13 Sept. 1826, but has not since been afloat.
Commander Gardiner married, first, in July, 1823, Julia Susanna, second daughter of John Keade, Esq., of Ipsden House, co. Oxford, by whom (who died 23 May, 1834) he had issue; and secondly, 7 Oct. 1836, Elizabeth Lydia, eldest daughter of the Rev. E. Marsh, Minister of Hampstead. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 1485.