A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Kent, William George Carlile
KENT. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 15; h-p., 34.)
William George Carlile Kent, born about 1788, in Lanarkshire, N.B., is second son of the late John Kent, Esq., who, after having served for upwards of 20 years as a Purser in the Navy, was appointed, in 1803, Steward of the Royal Naval Hospital at Plymouth, where he died in 1827; and brother (with the present Commander Henry Kent, R.N.) of Lieut. John Kent, R.N. (1809), formerly Senior of the Thais 20, who died from the effects of over-exertion in his profession in Jan. 1816, as also of Commander Bartholomew Kent, R.N. (1815), who served at the bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807 in the Guerrière when captured by the U.S. ship Constitution in Aug. 1812, and on shore at New Orleans in 1814-15, and died in Feb. 1835, aged 55. His paternal grandfather married the eldest sister of the late Vice- Admiral John Hunter, many years Governor of New South Wales, and grand-niece of the Lord-Provost Drummond, of Edinburgh. One of his father’s brothers, William, died Captain of the Union 98, off the mouth of the Rhone, in Aug. 1812; and another, Henry, Commander of the Dover 44, armée en flûte, died on the coast of Egypt in 1801. Of his maternal uncles, one, Robt. Wright, a Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, commanded that corps in Scotland, and served as Aide-de-Camp to the Duke of Kent in Nova Scotia and at Gibraltar; a second, Peter, a Captain in the Hon.E.I.Co.’s Infantry, died of wounds received in battle at Ceylon; and a third, George, became a Colonel in the R.E. His cousins, Bartholomew and Mark Kent, were both Lieutenants in the R.N.; the former was killed in a boat affair, in 1803, while First of the Goliath 74, Capt. Chas. Brisbane; and the latter died at sea in 1828.
This officer entered the Navy, 2 July, 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board Le Tigre 80, Capt. Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, under whom, after visiting Constantinople and the coast of Egypt, he served on shore at the defence of St. Jean d’Acre. In March, 1800, having previously witnessed a variety of operations on the Egyptian coast, he removed to the Theseus 74, Capt. John Stiles, and was for some time employed at the blockade of Genoa. On his return home, towards the close of the same year, he joined the Atlas 98, Capt. Theophilus Jones, stationed in the Channel; and we next, from Jan. 1802 until Jan. 1807, find him discharging the duties of Midshipman, Master’s Mate, and Acting-Lieutenant in the Buffalo store-ship, commanded in the East Indies and at New South Wales by Capts. Wm. Kent, Philip Gidley King, and John Houston. On the date last mentioned he became Acting-First-Lieutenant of the Porpoise store-ship, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Wm. Bligh, in which he continued until invested with the command of the Lady Nelson armed brig, then about to be employed in removing the settlers from Norfolk Island to the Derwent and Port Dalrymple. In April, 1803, Mr. Kent, whose confirmation in the rank of Lieutenant did not take place until 17 May, 1809, rejoined the Porpoise in the capacity of Acting-Commander. In Jan. 1811, on his return to England, after having endured a long and rigorous imprisonment on board the Porpoise at New South Wales by order of Commodore Bligh, he was brought to a court-martial upon certain charges preferred against him by that officer, of all of which, however, he was acquitted, being at the same time complimented for the conduct he had evinced under the extreme and extraordinary difficulties in which he had been placed. His last appointments were – 25 April and 19 Dec. 1812, to the Union 98, Capts. Sam. Hood Linzee, Wm. Kent, and Robt. Rolles, and, as First-Lieutenant, to the Sparrowhawk sloop, Capt. Thos. Ball Clowes, both on the Mediterranean station; where, in the latter vessel, he had the misfortune to encounter an accident which caused him excruciating torture, and to be confined to his bed for a considerable length of time, blind of both eyes, and without surgical assistance. In Sept. 1814 he took up a Commander’s commission dated on 15 of the previous June. He has since been on half-pay.
He married, 30 Dec. 1830, Susannah Elizabeth, third daughter of the late John Rankin, Esq., merchant, of Greenock, N.B., by whom he has issue.