A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Griffith, Henry Allan
GRIFFITH. (Lieut., 1826. f-p., 16; h-p., 20.)
Henry Allan Griffith is fourth son of the late Rich. Griffith, Esq., of Millecent, co. Kildare, M.P. for Askeaton during the Irish Parliament, by Mary, third daughter of the late Lord Chief Baron Hussey Burg, of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland.
This officer entered the Navy, 2 Sept. 1811, as Sec.-cl. Vol., on board the Aquilon 32, Capt. Wm. Bowles, in which ship, previously to sailing for South America, he served at the blockade of the Texel, and escorted Lord Cathcart as Ambassador to St. Petersburg, besides being occasionally employed in boat affairs in the North Sea and Baltic. In 1814, on his return to England with Capt. Bowles in the Ceres frigate, he became Midshipman of the Tiber 38, Capt. Jas. Rich. Dacres; and he afterwards joined in succession the Havannah 36, Capt. Gawen Wm. Hamilton, Rivoli 74, Capt. Sir Chas. Ogle, and Grecian schooner, Lieut.-Commander Henry Jewry – the two latter vessels employed at Portsmouth. During his servitude in the Havannah Mr. Griffith contributed, in the boats of that ship and a squadron, to the cutting-out, 18 July, 1815, of a convoy and several armed vessels lying under the protection of a fort at Corrijou, near Brest; and he next proceeded in her to St. Helena, in escort of Napoleon Buonaparte. From Nov. 1817, in the course of .which month he passed his examination, until 1820, he appears to have been employed in the East and West India merchant-service. He then rejoined the Navy by becoming Mate of the Cambrian 48, Capt. Gawen Wm. Hamilton, under whom, with the exception of 18 months spent in the Hind 20, Capt. Lord John Churchill, he continued to be employed, on the Mediterranean station, latterly as Acting-Lieutenant, until his removal in that capacity, in March, 1826, to the Sybille 48, Capt. Sam. John Brooke Pechell. While in the Hind, in 1824, Mr. Griffith volunteered into H.M.S. Meteor, for the purpose of co-operating in the attack then meditated upon Algiers. Shortly after his confirmation to the Sybille, which took place 5 June, 1826, we find him participating in a desperate action with some pirates off Candia, where the British sustained a loss of 12 men killed and 29 wounded. The Sybille being paid off in Nov. following, he subsequently joined – 24 July, 1827, the Prince Regent 120, flagship at the Nore of Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood – 30 Nov. in the same year (through the recommendation of the latter officer, and with a promise from the Lord High Admiral of promotion), to the Mersey 26, Capt. Alex. Barclay Branch, fitting for the West Indies – 11 Jan. 1829, to the Magnificent receiving-ship at Port Royal, Capts. Abraham Crawford and Jas. Thome – next, to the command of the Nimble schooner, which vessel, although incomplete in her rigging, and destitute of stores, provisions, and ammunition, he contrived, on a sudden emergency, to place in a sea-going state in the space of one night – and, subsequently (after having successfully cruized in suppression of the slave-trade), to the Victor and Sparrowhawk sloops, Capts. Keane and Gill. He has been on half-pay since July, 1830.
Lieut. Griffith married, in Nov. 1830, Mary, third daughter of the Rev. Dr. Buck, Rector of Clono. and Demtereat, co. Tyrone.