A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Reid, Charles Hope
REID. (Captain, 1822. f-p., 22; h-p., 28.)
Charles Hope Reid, a protégé of the Hopetoun family, is son of the late Chas. Reid, Esq., of Watermeetings, co. Lanark, steward or agent, we believe, to Lord Melville, by Wilhelmina Grunshield, niece of General Fingland Douglas, of Dumfriesshire.
This officer (originally in the Hon.E.I.Co.’s service) entered the Navy, in March, 1797, as A.B., on board the Colossus 74, Capt. Geo. Murray. In the following summer he was constantly engaged in rowing guard under the walls of Cadiz; and on one occasion the boat in which he served was so well defended that Lord St. Vincent promoted the commanding officer, the late Lord Wm. Stuart. The Colossus being wrecked on a ledge of rocks in St. Mary’s Road, Scilly, 10 Dec. 1798, he joined, in the course of the ensuing month, the Magnificent 74, Capt. Edw. Bowater; from which ship, attached to the Channel fleet, he removed as Midshipman, in March, 1801, to the Leda 38, Capt. Geo. Hope, and sailed for the Mediterranean. From Oct. 1801 until Nov. 1804 Mr. Reid acted, off Oporto and in the North Sea and West Indies, as Master of the Netley schooner, Lieut.-Commanders Jas. Mein and John Lawrence; in which vessel he co-operated in the reduction of Ste. Lucie 22 June, 1803, and assisted, in the following Sept., at the capture of Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice. In 1805, having passed his examination, he was again placed under the orders of Lieut. Mein as Midshipman on board the Nimble cutter, commanded subsequently by Lieut. Thos. Delafons. On his return in her, as Sub-Lieutenant, to the West Indies, after having served in the Channel and off the port of Cadiz, he received an acting-order from Rear-Admiral Hon. Alex. Cochrane to assume command of the Trinidad schooner of 14 guns. While on his passage to join that vessel in the Hart sloop-of-war, the latter in a gust of wind fell over on her beam ends, and was only saved from foundering by his great activity and presence of mind. Attaining the rank of Lieutenant 22 Jan. 1806, he was successively appointed in that capacity – 16 April, 1806, to the Theseus 74, Capt. Geo. Hope, stationed in the Channel, where he remained until obliged by ill health to invalid in the following Oct. – 15 April, 1807, to the Brunswick 74, Capt. Thos. Graves, part of the force employed in the expedition against Copenhagen, where he assisted at the debarkation of the troops under Lord Cathcart, officiated as Senior Lieutenant during the equipment of the Danish fleet, and ultimately, owing to the illness of his Captain, assumed the sole charge of the ship, which he conducted home – 24 Feb. 1808 (after three months of half-pay), to the Pompée 74, commanded, at Chatham, by his friend Capt. Hope – and 28 March following, to the Victory 100, bearing the flag of Sir Jas, Saumarez. In the ship last mentioned he aided in bringing home the remains of Sir John Moore’s army after the battle of Corunna at the commencement of 1809, and thenceforward, until promoted to the rank of Commander 2 June, 1812, served as Flag-Lieutenant to his patron, who had been appointed Captain of the Baltic fleet. He was subsequently appointed – 11 Sept. 1812, to the Fervent 12, stationed in the Channel and Baltic – in June, 1814, to the Calypso 18, employed among the Western Islands and in the Mediterranean – in Jan. 1816, as Acting-Captain, for four months, to the Trident 64, guard-ship at Malta, where, as senior officer, he conducted the duties of the port and of the Naval Arsenal – and 12 Dec. 1817, to the Driver sloop, in which vessel, until paid off in Oct. 1821, he had charge on the coast of Scotland of all the small cruizers under the orders of Sir Wm. Johnstone Hope and his successor Rear-Admiral Robt. Waller Otway. He attained Post-rank 26 Dec. 1822; and accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
Capt. Reid is married and has issue.