A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Oldrey, William
OLDREY. (Captain, 1838. f-p., 14; h-p., 29.)
William Oldrey entered the Navy, 22 June, 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Warrior 74, Capts. Wm. Bligh and Sam. Hood Linzee, attached to the Channel fleet. In the summer of 1805 (he had attained the rating of Midshipman in July, 1804) he sailed in the Porpoise for New South Wales; whence, in Dec. 1807, he returned to England in the Buffalo. He then joined the Diomede 50, flag-ship of Sir Jas. Saumarez and Sir Edm. Nagle off Guernsey and Cherbourg; and after a servitude of three years and a half on the Home and Lisbon stations in the Doterel sloop, Capts. Anthony Abdy, Thos. Goldwire Muston, and Cohen (part of the force employed at the destruction of the French shipping in Basque Roads), and Barfleur 98, flag-ship of Hon. Geo. Cranfield Berkeley he was made Lieutenant, 7 July, 1812, into the Union 98, commanded in the Mediterranean by Capts. Wm. Kent and Robt. Rolles. Being next 9 April, 1813, appointed to the Undaunted 38, Capt. Thos. Ussher, he took command, 3 May following of a boat belonging to that ship, and in the most gallant manner boarded and carried an enemy’s brig under a furious cannonade from the batteries at Marseilles. On 7 of the same month he attacked a French national schooner of the largest class, with a fleet of coasting vessels under her protection; two of the latter were taken, and several driven on shore; but unfortunately, just as he was about to board the schooner, a squall of wind arose, and she was enabled to effect her escape, notwithstanding that he made every effort again to close with her, and; resolutely continued the chase as long as the most distant hope remained of doing so, although his boat had already suffered a severe loss, and he himself had had his thigh-bone fractured. Inconsequence of his wound, for which he now receives a pension of 91l. 5s., he was under the necessity, in the ensuing July, of invaliding. His next appointments were – 6 June, 1815, for a few months, to the Albion 74, Capts. Philip Somerville and Jas. Walker, employed at Portsmouth and Sheerness – and 16 Dec. 1818, to the command, which he retained for about three years, of the Pioneek 10, on the Home station. As Commander, a rank he attained 24 April, 1828, Capt. Oldrey, from 14 March, 1831, until paid off at the close of 1832, served in the West Indies on board the Hyacinth 18. He attained his present rank 28 June, 1838, but has not been since afloat.