A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Holman, Robert
HOLMAN. (Lieut., 1810. f-p., 19; h-p., 28.)
Robert Holman is brother of Capt. Wm. Holman, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Sept. 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Royal George 100, Capts. Wm. Domett and Robt. Waller Otway, bearing the flag for some time of Sir Hyde Parker in the Channel. On accompanying that Admiral, as Midshipman, in Feb. 1801, into the London 98, he witnessed the ensuing memorable conflict off Copenhagen; after which event he was for three years and a half employed with Capt. John Hancock on board the Cruizer sloop. He assisted, during that period, at the capture, 14 June, 1803, when in company with L’Immortalité 36, and Jalouse 18, of the French gun-brigs L’Inabordable and La Commode, after an hour’s engagement with the batteries on the east side of Cape Grisnez; participated also in a skirmish fought by the Cruizer, in March, 1804, with 13 armed vessels full of troops, which had come out of Flushing apparently for the purpose of carrying her by boarding; and on 16 May, 1804, was present in a gallant action of six hours and a half with a division of the French flotilla, consisting of 59 sail, passing alongshore from Flushing to Ostend, whose fire occasioned the Cruizer a loss of 1 man killed and 4 wounded. He further shared, 23 Oct. following, in the Cruizer’s close action with a praam, which was completely silenced in less than an hour and a half; and he contributed to the destruction, among other privateers, of a very notorious one, Le Contre Amiral de Magon, of 17 guns and 84 men, 17 Nov. 1804. On 22 July, 1805, having joined the Prince of Wales 98, we find Mr. Holman acting as Aide-de-camp to Sir Robt. Calder in his action with the combined squadrons off Cape Finisterre. He subsequently, in Jan. 1806, rejoined Capt. Otway on board the Montagu 74, in which ship, on his return from a visit to the West Indies, he proceeded to the Mediterranean; where, in Feb. 1808 (nearly 12 months after he had passed his examination), he served in the boats at the evacuation of Scylla, a fortified rock in the Faro of Messina, the garrison whereof was embarked under a heavy fire from the enemy on the Calabrian shore. While on the books of the Montagu, Mr. Holman succeeded on one occasion, when in charge of two boats, in cutting out, close in with the town of Reggio, a vessel laden with wine, in tow of a gun-boat. On being removed to the Canopus 80, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Geo. Martin, he had an opportunity, in 1809, besides witnessing the annihilation of a flotilla of gun-boats on the coast of Italy, of aiding in the capture of the islands of Ischia and Procida, and of joining in the pursuit which led to the self-destruction of the French ships of the line Robuste and Lion. From Nov. 1809 to July, 1812, he was employed as Acting-Lieutenant and Lieutenant (commission dated 11 Aug. 1810) in the Bombay 74, Capts. Wm. Cuming and Norborne Thompson. In the boats of that ship, which was stationed the whole time in the Mediterranean, Lieut. Holman, in the year 1811, had the fortune and gallantry, at noonday, to bring out several vessels laden with wine from under Fort Trinidad, in the Bay of Rosas. With the exception of a cruize, during the latter months of 1813, off Cherbourg, in the Eridanus 36, Capt. Henry Prescott, he was uninterruptedly employed at Plymouth, from Sept. 1812 until Nov. 1819, on board the Salvador del Mundo, Impregnable, St. George, Impregnable again, Berwick 74, and a third time in the Impregnable, under the flags of Sir Robt. Calder, Sir Wm. Domett, and Sir John Thos. Duckworth. In Oct. 1814, on the occasion of an official visit made by the Lords of the Admiralty to the above port, it was the honourable lot of Lieut. Holman, then in temporary command of the Impregnable, to hoist their Lordships’ flag. He has been on half-pay since 1819.
In June, 1838, he was appointed Superintendent of the Plymouth Police – a post he still continues to fill. He married, 2 Nov. 1824, Mary, daughter of the late Wm. Holman, Esq., of Hayne House, co. Devon, and by that lady, who died 4 Nov. 1840, has issue six children. Agents – Case and Loudonsack.