A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Harcourt, Octavius Vernon
HARCOURT, formerly Vernon. (Captain, 1827. f-p., 18; h-p., 23.)
Octavius Vernon Harcourt, born 25 Dec. 1793, at Rose Castle, co. Cumberland, is eighth son of the Archbishop of York; and brother of Capt. F. E. V. Harcourt, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, in Aug. 1806, as Midshipman, on board the Tigre 74, Capt. Benj. Hallowell, and, on attending the expedition of 1807 to Egypt, witnessed the surrender of Alexandria, and was much employed on boat-service up the river Nile. After assisting at the blockade of Toulon, and contributing to the destruction, towards the close of Oct. 1809, of the French ships of the line Robuste and Lion, he accompanied Capt. Hallowell, on his promotion to the rank of Rear-Admiral, into the Malta 80, and continued to serve with him in that ship, on the Mediterranean station, until the receipt of his first commission, bearing date 11 Jan. 1814 – co-operating intermediately with the troops on the south-east coast of Spain, and serving in the batteries at the siege of Tarragona. Be next joined the Mulgrave 74, Capt. Thos. Jas. Maling, and, while cruizing in that ship off the coast of Italy, landed with a party of seamen and marines near Piombino, where he captured a martello tower, and brought out or destroyed a convoy anchored under its protection. During the war of a Hundred Days, Mr. Harcourt, then belonging to the Amelia 38, Capt. Hon. Granville Proby, served at the blockade of Elba, and, on the intelligence arriving of the surrender of Buonaparte after the battle of Waterloo, he was sent with a Major of the Tuscan army to summon the town of Porto Ferrajo. Quitting the latter vessel in 1816, he remained on half-pay until appointed, 2 Feb. 1818, to the Sir Francis Drake, flag-ship of Sir Chas. Hamilton at Newfoundland; where he obtained command, 3 Feb. 1820, of the Drake sloop, and, for a short time in the same year, of the Carnation 18. He afterwards joined, 5 June, 1824, and 30 May, 1825, the Britomart 10, and Primrose 18, both employed in the West Indies, from which station he returned to England, with upwards of a million of dollars, in July, 1827. He was promoted to his present rank on 7 of the following month, and, about the same period, was selected by the Lord High Admiral to act as his Aide-de-Camp, in the Royal Sovereign yacht, on the occasion of a visit of Inspection to the various seaports. Capt. Harcourt’s last appointment was, 26 March, 1834, to the North Star 28, in which vessel he took out H. Hamilton, Esq., the British Minister, to Buenos Ayres, was then employed in surveying the coast of central America and California, and ultimately returned home with a large freight. He has been on half-pay since 27 Oct. 1836.
Capt. Harcourt, during the year 1820, discharged the duties of Surrogate at Newfoundland. He married, 22 Feb. 1838, Anne Holwell, daughter of Wm. Guter, Esq., and relict of Wm. Danby, Esq., of Swinton Park, Yorkshire.