A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Kevern, Richard
KEVERN. (Retired Commander, 1827. f-p., 19; h-p., 43.)
Richard Kevern entered the Navy, in 1785, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Irresistible 74, Capt. Sir Andrew Snape Hamond, guard-ship at Chatham, where he served for a period of four years. He was next, until Nov. 1794, employed on the Newfoundland station, part of the time as Midshipman, in the Pegasus, Capts. Herbert Sawyer and Wm. Domett, Assistance, flag-ship of Sir Rich. King, and Trepassey cutter, Lieut.-Commander Jahleel Brenton – of which latter vessel he was created a Lieutenant 24 Oct. 1793. His succeeding appointments .were, on the Home station – 7 Jan. 1795, to the Caesar 80, Capts. Chas. Edm. Nugent and Roddam Home – 2 June, 1798, to the Caesar 80, Capt. Collis – 5 April, 1799, to the St. George 98, Capt. Sampson Edwards – in 1801, to the San Josef 110, Capt. Wm. Wolseley, which ship was paid off in the following year – 6 March, 1804, to the Jamaica 24, Capt. Jonas Rose – 21 May, 1805, to the command of the Exertion gun-brig – 11 Jan. 1806, to the Sea Fencibles at Weymouth – and 26 April following, as Senior, to the Sheldrake 16, Capt. John Thicknesse. On 12 Oct. 1806 Lieut. Kevern took part in an action of an hour and a quarter, fought in the Bay of Erqui, between a British squadron, consisting of the Sheldrake, Constance 22, Strenuous gun-brig, and Britannia cutter, on the one hand, and, on the other, a French force, amounting to the Salamandre of 26 guns and 80 men, a 2-gun battery planted on a hill, and one or two field-pieces, together with a few troops, on the beach; the termination whereof was the surrender of the enemy’s ship, after a loss to herself of about 29 men killed, independently of several wounded, and to the British of 10 killed and 23 wounded. The assistance afforded by Lieut. Kevern on the occasion was particularly noticed by Capt. Thicknesse, who, in his letter to the Admiralty, described him as a most meritorious and able officer, and recommended him in consequence to their lordships’ favourable attention.[1] He left the Sheldrake in a state of ill health in the following Nov., and accepted his present rank 3 Dec. 1827.
He is married, and has issue a son, the present Lieut. Rich. C. Kevern, R.N.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 1364.