A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Leary, George Alexander
LEARY. (Lieut., 1821. f-p., 21; h-p., 17.)
George Alexander Leary died 31 Jan. 1845, a victim to the climate of Sierra Leone.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Aug. 1807, as Schoolmaster, on board the Dictator 64, Capt. Donald Campbell; on accompanying whom, after he had attended the expedition to Copenhagen, into the Audacious 74, he took part, as Midshipman, in the operations of 1809 against Walcheren. From the period of his quitting the latter ship, in Dec. 1811, until May, 1814, Mr. Leary, with the exception of four months passed in 1813 on board the Redwing 18, Capt. Sir John Gordon Sinclair, served continuously with Capt. John Erskine Douglas in the Prince of Wales 98, on the Mediterranean station, where he beheld Sir Edw. Fellow’s two partial actions with the Toulon fleet, and the fall, in April of the latter year, of Genoa. During the short period of his attachment to the Redwing, Mr. Leary, besides sharing in a hostile operation under the batteries of Morgean, near Marseilles, assisted, we understand, in capturing, beneath those of Cassis, a convoy of 26 sail, together with 2 heavy gun-boats, after an opposition had been encountered which occasioned the British a loss of 4 men killed and 16 wounded. Removing, in May, 1814, to the Furieuse 36, Capt. Wm. Mounsey, he served during the next 15 months in that frigate on the coast of North America; after which we find him, until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 19 July, 1821, employed on the West India, Mediterranean, and Home stations, in the Primrose 18, Capt. Chas. Geo. Rodney Phillott, Landrail 4, Master-Commander Anthony De Mayne (under whom he was for a considerable time occupied among the Bahama Islands as Assistant-Surveying Master), Salisbury 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Donald Campbell, Fly 18, Capt. Jas. Tomkinson, Rochfort 80, bearing the flag of Sir Graham Moore, Glasgow 50, Capt. Hon. Anthony Maitland, Queen Charlotte 100, Capt. John Baker Hay, and Rose 18, Capt. Thos. Ball Clowes. His subsequent appointments were – 8 Oct. 1830, for six months, to the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Talavera 74, Capt. Hugh Pigot – 31 May, 1831, to the Coast Guard, which he left at the close of 1832-16 Aug. 1837, to the Hercules 74, Capt. John Toup Nicolas, off Lisbon – 16 Juno, 1838, to the command of the Bullfrog schooner on the Lakes of Canada – next, as Senior, to the Niagara 20, commanded there by Capt. Williams Sandom, under whom he assisted, 16 Nov. 1838, in defeating a band of rebels, on which occasion he was sent with a flag of truce, and induced them to surrender – 13 Jan. 1840 (having been superseded from the latter ship in the previous Oct.), to the command of the Asp, a Portpatrick steamer, wherein he remained until May, 1841 – and 28 Jan. 1843, to the office (which he retained until his death) of Agent on board the Glen Huntley emigration transport.