A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Kitchen, William Hewgill
KITCHEN. (Captain, 1846. f-p., 31; h-p., 17.)
William Hewgill Kitchen was born in June, 1787.
This officer entered the Navy, 3 Feb. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Monarch 74, Capt. Jas. Robt. Mosse, and, on 2 April, 1801, after having served for some time in the North Sea, under the flag of Sir Arch. Dickson, was present in the action off Copenhagen. During the remainder of the war we find him employed with Sir Hyde Parker, as Midshipman, in the London 98. Joining next, in Sept. 1802, the Argo 44, Capt. Benj. Hallowell, he commanded a tender belonging to that ship at the reduction of Ste. Lucie and Tobago in 1803. On becoming Master’s Mate of the Speedy sloop, Capt. Jas. Gifford, he received, in 1804, a contusion of the right knee while firing at the enemy’s flotilla off Ostend; and in 1805, being at the time in command of a rocket-boat under Sir Sidney Smith off Boulogne, he was severely burnt in both hands. Prior to the receipt of his first commission, which bears date 12 May, 1808, he was for nearly two years employed, chiefly as Sub and Acting Lieutenant, in the Dauntless 20, Capts. Hugh Pigot and Chas. Jones, Sparkler 12, Lieut.-Commander Jas. Sam. Akid Dennis, Alligator, Capt. Hugh Pigot, Northumberland 74, flag-ship of Sir Alex. Cochrane, Dominica 16 (commanded at first by Lieut. Wm. Dean, and then by himself), and Melville 18, Capt. Hon. Jas. Wm. King. While Sub-Lieutenant of the Dominica, Mr. Kitchen, with her gig and cutter under his orders, captured, on 4 Oct. 1806, the French national schooner La Chiffonne, carrying 17 men, and having on board a French General and his suite on their passage from Guadeloupe to Martinique. On another occasion, during his attachment to the same vessel, he was shghtly wounded in the leg at the cutting-out of four of the enemy’s vessels from under a battery on the former island. When in the Melville, Mr. Kitchen assisted at the reduction of the Danish West India islands in Dec. 1807. Between the date of his promotion, as above, and Jan. 1813, we find him serving, on the West India, Home, and Lisbon stations, in the Wolverene, Asp, and Beagle sloops, Capts. Fras. Augustus Collier, Robt. Preston, Wm. M‘Culloch, and Wm. Brooking Dolling, Bellona 74, Capt. John Erskine Douglas, and Zenobia 16, Capt. R. Mackenzie. As Senior of the Asp, he served, in 1809-10, at the taking of Martinique, the capture of the French frigate La Junon, and in the boats at the destruction of the forts and magazines of Port St. Louis, Guadeloupe. Under Capt. Dolling of the Beagle he was employed in the dangerous service of landing papers on the French coast. His appointments, after leaving the Zenobia, were, in the capacity of First-Lieutenant – 8 Oct. 1813, to the Tyrian 10, Capts. Augustus Baldwin and Wm. Popham, with whom he was for five years employed in the Channel and West Indies – 16 Jan. 1819, to the Wye 26, Capts. Geo. Wickens Willes and Peter Fisher, on the Home station – 11 Nov. 1820, to the Forte 44, Capt. Sir Thos. John Cochrane, fitting for the West Indies, whence he invalided in 1822 – and, 13 April, 1824, to the Terror bomb, Capt. Alex. Dundas Young Arbuthnott, part of the force employed in the ensuing expedition against Algiers. On 13 April, 1825, he assumed command of the Nightingale cutter in the Channel, where he cruized until some time in 1826. Obtaining a second promotal commission 2 March, 1827, Capt. Kitchen, on 6 July, 1830, was appointed to a three-years’ Inspectorship in the Coast Guard at Harwich. In the following winter he so distinguished himself by his exertions in suppressing riots and extinguishing incendiary fires, that he elicited the thanks of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, of the Duke of Grafton, Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk, of Lord Maynard, Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, and of the Magistrates of Suffolk and Essex. The Duke of Grafton, indeed, and Lord Maynard were so impressed with the value of his services, that they strongly recommended him to the notice of Lord Minto, then First Lord of the Admiralty; who, however, retired from office without conferring upon Capt. Kitchen the promotion which, we understand, he had been in consequence induced to promise. His last appointments were – 9 March, 1842, to the Second-Captaincy of the Queen 110, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. W. C. K. Owen in the Mediterranean – and, 17 Feb. 1844, to the command of the Devastation steam-sloop on the same station, whence he returned home and was paid off at the close of 1845. He acquired his present rank 9 Nov. 1846, and is now unemployed.
He married, in 1820, Miss Bell, of Shields, co. Durham. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.