A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Lambert, Charles
LAMBERT. (Lieut., 1813. f-p., 11; h-p., 32.)
Charles Lambert was born 28 June, 1790. This officer entered the Navy, 1 July, 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Nemesis 28, Capt. Philip Somerville, stationed in the Channel. In the course of 1805 he successively joined the Dreadnought 98, and Royal Sovereign 100, bearing each the flag of Lord Collingwood, under whom, after serving at the blockade of Cadiz, he fought in the latter ship at the battle of Trafalgar. From Nov. in the same year, 1805, until the spring of 1810, we find Mr. Lambert employed on the Channel and Cape of Good Hope stations, principally as Midshipman, in the Bellerophon 74, and Leopard 50, flag-ships of the late Sir Albemarle Bertie. He then became attached to the Nereide 36, Capt. Nesbit Josiah Willoughby, under whom, we are informed, he took part in the boats in a gallant attack made on the enemy’s batteries and troops at Jacotel, in the Mauritius. He also assisted, in July, 1810, at the capture of Ile de Bourbon; and on 17 Aug. he landed, we believe, at the storming of a fort on Pointe du Diable, in the Isle of France. He witnessed, next, the capture of Ile de la Passe; was on board the Nereide when she compelled the enemy’s sloop Victor to surrender, and exchanged broadsides with the 40-gun frigate Minerve; and was slightly wounded during a series of unhappy although heroic operations, which, by 28 Aug., terminated in the self-destruction, in Port Sud-Est, of the British frigates Magicienne and Sirius, and the capture, by a French squadron, of the Nereide and Iphigenia – the former after being reduced to a mere wreck, and incurring a loss of nearly her whole crew. Being restored to liberty on the fall of the Isle of France in the following Dec, Mr. Lambert returned to England in La Manche frigate, Lieut.Commander Edw. Grimes. In Nov. 1812, having been for the last 15 months employed in the Favorite and Stork sloops, Capts. Robt. Forbes and Robt. Lisle Coulson, on the Plymouth and Cork stations, be was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Peacock, of 18 guns and 122 men, Capt. Wm. Peake; which sloop (of whose crew 5, including the Commander, were killed, and 33 wounded) was sunk, at the close of a desperate action of 25 minutes, by the American ship Hornet, of 20 guns and 165 men, 1 only of whom was killed and 2 wounded. On his release from captivity in May, 1814, Mr. Lambert found that he had been promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Euryalus 36, Capt. Chas. Napier, by commission dated 6 Dec. 1813. In the following Aug., being still in that ship, he accompanied Capt. Jas. Alex. Gordon’s brilliant expedition up the Potomac, and was in consequence present at the capture of Fort Washington, the capitulation of Alexandria, and the destruction of the American batteries on the banks of the river. During these operations he was again slightly wounded. He invalided from the Euryalus in the month ensuing, and was lastly, from July to Sept. 1815, employed on the Leith station in the Pincher 12, Capt. T. Smith.
He married 24 March, 1816, and has issue six children. Agents – Holmes and Folkard.