A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Gordon, Henry
GORDON. (Rear-Admiral, of the Red, 1840. r-p.; 19; h-p., 37.)
Henry Gordon is second son of Capt. Fras. Grant Gordon, R.N. (who died in 1803), by Mary, daughter of Sir Willoughby Aston, Bart.; brother of Lieutenant-General the Right Hon. Sir Jas. Willoughby Gordon, Bart., G.C.B., G.C.H., Colonel of the 23rd Foot and Quartermaster-General of the Forces, and of Rear-Admiral Chas. Gordon, C.B.; and brother-in-law of the late Sir Robt. Wemyss.
This officer entered the Navy, 18 May, 1791, as Midshipman, on board the Robust 74, Capt. Rowland Cotton, on the Home station, where, and in the West Indies, he was afterwards employed, until Dec. 1796, in the Edgar and Ganges 74’s, both commanded by Capt. A. J. P. Molloy, and Caesar 80, and Beaulieu frigate, bearing the flags of Hon. Wm. Cornwallis and Sir John Laforey. He then became Acting-Lieutenant of the Malabar 54, Capt. John Parr, and on 13 July, 1798, was confirmed into the Matilda 24, Capt. H. Mitford, both likewise stationed in the West Indies. Joining next, 22 Nov. 1799, the Repulse 64, Capt. Jas. Alms, Mr. Gordon continued to serve in that ship until 10 March, 1800, on which date he had the misfortune to be wrecked on a sunken rock near Ushant, and taken prisoner. On regaining his liberty a few months afterwards he joined the Princess of Orange 74, flag-ship in the North Sea of Admiral Dickson, under whom he appears to have been serving at the time of his promotion to the rank of Commander, 29 April, 1802. On 24 March, 1804, while on his passage to Newfoundland with a convoy of 8 merchantmen in the Wolverene, a flimsy sloop of 13 guns and 76 men, to which he had been appointed 19 Oct. 1803, Capt. Gordon fell in with and was captured, after a furious and most noble resistance of 50 minutes, by the French frigate-built privateer Blonde, of 30 guns and 180 men, 6 of whom only were wounded, while the British sustained a loss of 5 killed and 10 wounded. The gallantry of the Wolverene in prolonging the fight until she was actually going down enabled the greater part of the convoy to accomplish their escape. Her intrepid Captain was rewarded with a Post-commission dated 8 April, 1805; and he had the further gratification, on his return to England in Nov. 1811, of being most honourably acquitted by a Court-Martial. He has not since, however, been afloat. His promotion to Flag-rank took place 17 Aug. 1840.
The Rear-Admiral married, 18 Dec. 1826, Charlotte, daughter of the late Sir John Wrottesley, Bart., and widow of the Rev. John Heylar. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.