A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Rainier, John
RAINIER. (Lieut., 1821. f-p., 14; h-p., 23.)
John Rainier, born 12 July, 1797, is son of the late John Rainier, Esq., Banker, of Hackney, co. Middlesex; nephew of the late Admirals Peter Rainier and Jas. Vashon, the former of whom commanded in chief in the East Indies as Commodore and Rear and Vice-Admiral from 1794 until 1804; and uncle of Lieuts. Charles and Peter Rainier, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 17 Nov. 1810, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Désirée 36, Capts. Arthur Farquhar and Wm. Woolridge. Under the former he served at the blockade of the Texel, cruized among the Western Islands, was actively employed in the rivers Elbe and Weser, and assisted, as Midshipman, at the reduction, in Dec. 1813 and Jan. 1814, of Cuxhaven and Gluckstadt. During the siege of the latter place he was engaged on shore in the batteries and officiated as an Aide-de-Camp between Capt. Farquhar and the Swedish General Baron de Boyé. On one occasion he was ordered to cross the river (Elbe) at a very wide part with despatches from the Crown Prince of Sweden for the British Government. The weather being memorably inclement, and the passage occupying 15 hours, he was so dreadfully frost-bitten in the feet that he has never ceased to feel the effects. In May, 1814, he again joined Capt. Farquhar on board the Liverpool 40; in which ship he escorted convoy to Quebec, cruized on the American station, and aided at the blockade of the Ile de Bourbon. On her return to England, in the spring of 1816, the Liverpool took the ground at the foot of Shakspeare’s Cliff, near Dover, and was not rescued from her perilous position until all her masts and spars had been cut away, and her guns, provisions, and stores thrown overboard. After serving for 17 months on the St. Helena station in the Newcastle 60, flag-ship of Sir Pulteney Malcolm, and for two years and six months in the Channel and Mediterranean, in the Liffey 50, Capt. Hon. Henry Duncan, Mr. Rainier was nominated, 14 Dec. 1820, Acting-Lieutenant of the Vengeur 74, Capt. Fred. Lewis Maitland; to which ship, also attached to the force in the Mediterranean, he was confirmed 9 Jan. 1821. In the Liffey he was for a short time in attendance on the Prince Regent; and in the Vengeur he escorted the King of Naples to Leghorn. He returned to England in April, 1821; and was afterwards appointed – 7 Jan. 1824, to the Ramillies 74, Coast Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, lying in the Downs – 20 Dec. 1825, to the Java 52, flag-ship of Sir Wm. Hall Gage in the East Indies – 18 Jan. 1827, to the Boadicea 46, Capt. John Wilson, with whom he came home in Aug. of the same year – and 4 Nov. 1830 and 18 April, 1831, as First, to the Racehorse and Hyacinth of 18 guns each, Capts. Chas. Hamlyn Williams and Wm. Oldrey, both in the West Indies. In May, 1831, so serious had grown the consequences of the injury he had sustained, as above alluded to, in Jan. 1814, that he was obliged to invalid for the purpose of having the outside of his left foot removed. He has been ever since a cripple; and on 17 April, 1843, was awarded a pension of 36l. 10s. per annum.
Lieut. Rainier married, 16 Jan. 1833, Harriette, eldest daughter of the Rev. John Jones, of Brithdir Hall, Montgomeryshire. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.