A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Greening, Richard
GREENING. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 13; h-p., 31.)
Richard Greening was born 20 Oct. 1783. This officer (who had been previously employed for flve years in the merchant-service) entered the Navy, into which he was impressed, 7 Nov. 1803, as Midshipman, on board the Hero 74, Capts. Hon. Alan Hyde Gardner and John Poo Beresford. In that ship he fought and was slightly wounded in Sir Robt. Calder’s and Sir Rich. Strachan’s actions, 22 July and 4 Nov. 1805; and on 13 of the following March he further witnessed the capture of the French 80-gun ship Marengo, bearing the flag of Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule. In the summer of 1807, after a brief attachment with Capt. Beresford to the Ville de Paris 110, he sailed for the Mediterranean as Master’s Mate of the Minstrel 18, Capts. John Hollinworth, Ralph Randolph Wormeley, and John Campbell; in which sloop, besides assisting at the capture, 16 July, 1808, of the national schooner Ortenzia, pierced for 16, but carrying only 10 guns, he was present, 13 Dec. 1810, at the destruction of a large convoy protected by two batteries in the Mole of Palamos, where the boats, commanded by Capt. Fras. Wm. Fane, sustained a loss, out of 600 officers and men, of upwards of 200 killed, wounded, and taken prisoners. Mr. Greening, who also participated while in the Minstrel in many boat-skirmishes in the Adriatic, next, in 1813, proceeded to the East Indies in the Salsette 36, Capt. John Bowen. He was there appointed Acting-Lieutenant, 19 June, 1815, of the Minden 74, Capt. Donald Hugh Mackay; and on his return home for the purpose of being paid off in March, 1816, he found that he had been officially promoted by commission dated 20 Sept. in the same year. He has not since been employed.
Lieut. Greening married, in 1831, Miss Frances Bruton.