A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Greene, William Burnaby
GREENE. (Captain, 1834. f-p., 17; h-p., 20.)
William Burnaby Greene is son of Capt. Pitt Burnaby Greene, R.N. (1811), who died in 1837. This officer entered the Royal Naval College 27 Jan. 1810; and embarked, 3 May, 1812, as Midshipman, on board the Ganymede 26, Capt. John Brett Purvis, under whom he appears to have been employed until Sept. 1814 on the coast of Spain, where he frequently came into action with the enemy and saw much active boat-service. During the next four years we find him successively joining the Bonne Citoyenne 20, Capt. Augustus Wm. Jas. Clifford, Astraea 36, Capt. Edw. Kittoe, Furieuse 36, Capt. Wm. Mounsey, Challenger 16, Capt. Hen. Forbes, Falmouth 20, Capt. Robt. Worgan Geo. Festing, Phaeton 46, Capt. Fras. Stanfell, and Royal Sovereign and Royal George yachts, Capts. Sir Edw. W. C. R. Owen and Hon. Chas. Paget. In all of those ships, with the exception of the Falmouth and Phaeton, in which he visited St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope, Mr. Greene served on the Home station. Obtaining his first commission 9 Nov. 1818, he was next appointed, in the capacity of Lieutenant – 22 May, 1821, to the Rose 18, Capt. Thos. Ball Clowes, in which vessel, on proceeding to the Mediterranean, he had the misfortune to be severely wounded – 8 July, 1822, to the William and Mary yacht, Capt. Chas. Malcolm, lying at Dublin – and, 25 Nov. 1823, to the Revenge 76, bearing the flag on the Mediterranean station of Sir Harry Burrard Neale. He was promoted, 30 Dec. 1826, to the command of the Medina 20, which sloop he paid off in 1827; and he next, from 22 July, 1830, until put out of commission 13 Dec. 1821, officiated as Second-Captain, again in the Mediterranean, of the Kent 78, Capt. Sam. Pym. He was advanced to the rank he now holds 6 June, 1834; but has not since been afloat.
Capt. Greene married, 21 April, 1829, Catherine, eldest daughter of the late Sam. Powell, Esq. (of Hammerton and Brandlesome Halls, cos. York and Lancaster, and of Barley Street, London), and sister of Capt. Hen. Folliott Powell, of the Ceylon Rifle Regt, by whom he has issue.