A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Home, James Everard
HOME, Bart., C.B., F.R.S. (Captain, 1837.)
Sir James Everard Home, born 25 Oct. 1793, in London, is son of the late Sir Everard Home, Bart., F.R.S., Sergeant-Surgeon to the King, and Physician to the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, by Jane, daughter and heiress of Jas. Tunstall, Esq., D.D., and widow of Stephen Thompson, Esq.; nephew of Capt. Wm. Home, E.I.C.S., and of John Hunter, Esq., Surgeon-General to the Army; and brother-in-law of Capt. Henry Forbes, R.N., and of the late Capt. Bernard Yeoman, R.N. He succeeded his father, as second Baronet, 31 Aug. 1832.
This officer entered the Navy, 10 April, 1810, as Midshipman, on board the Euryalus frigate, Capt. Hon. Geo. Heneage Lawrence Dundas. Proceeding in that ship to the Mediterranean, he there joined, in Aug. 1812, the Malta 80, bearing the flag of Sir Benj. Hallowell, with whom, subsequently to the peace, he served at Cork on board the Tonnant 80. On his ultimate arrival in the West Indies in the Sybille frigate, bearing the flag of Sir Home Popham, he was promoted, 14 July, 1814, to a Lieutenancy in the Larne 20, Capt. Abraham Lowe, and next appointed to the Pique 36, Capt. John Mackellar. After a further servitude of eight months on the Home station in the Helicon 10, Capt. Wm. Robt. Dawkins, he succeeded in obtaining a second promotal commission, dated 28 Jan. 1822, but he did not again go afloat until Feb. 1834, on 1 of which month we find him assuming command of the Racehorse 18, fitting for the West Indies.[1] He acquired his present rank soon after he had been paid off; 5 Dec. 1837; and he was lastly, from 30 Aug. 1841, until the summer of 1846, employed in the East Indies on board the North Star 26. During the period he commanded the latter ship Sir Jas. Everard Home contributed to the capture of Woosung and Shanghae, and participated in the operations on the Tang-tse-Kiang[2] – services for which he was nominated a C.B. 24 Dec. 1842. In Dec. 1845, when Senior Naval Officer at New Zealand, he originated the instructions which were afterwards adopted by Capt. Chas. Graham, during whose siege of Kawiti’s stronghold, as detailed in our memoir of that officer, he was intrusted with, and behaved with unwearied zeal, exertion, and attention at, the defence of a pah situated at the point of debarkation, six miles up the river and 12 from the pah destroyed.[3]
Sir J. E. Home was elected a F.R.S. in 1825.