A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Richards, Harry Lord
RICHARDS. (Commander, 1828. f-p., 20; h-p., 29.)
Harry Lord Richards is brother of John Richards, Esq., Purser and Paymaster R.N. (1800), who died in 1846.
This officer entered the Navy, 26 June, 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Prudent prison-ship at Plymouth, Capt. Chas. Henry Lane; and from the following Oct. until his return to England in 1802 was employed in the Channel and West Indies as A.B., Midshipman, and Master’s Mate, in the Druid 32, Capt. Chas. Apthorp, Volage 22, Capts. Hon. Philip Wodehouse, Wm. Parker, and Fras. Vesey (in which ship he assisted at the capture of the Santa Dorval Spanish packet), and Dédaigneuse frigate, Capt. Thos. Geo. Shortland. He then sailed in the ship last mentioned under Capt. Peter Heywood for the East Indies; where, from Feb. 1804 until Jan. 1805, he acted as Lieutenant in the Caroline 36 and Grampus 50, Capts. Benj. Wm. Page and Thos. Gordon Caulfeild. After again serving as Midshipman in the Dédaigneuse and Cornwallis 50, both commanded by Capt. Chas. Jas. Johnston, and as a Supernumerary on promotion in the Culloden 74, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Pellew, he was afresh ordered to act as Lieutenant, in Jan. and July, 1808, in the Caroline, commanded at the time by Capt. Henry Hart, and Fox 32, Capts. Hon. Arch. Cochrane and H. Hart. While attached to the Culloden he contributed, 11 Dec. 1807, to the destruction of the dockyard and stores at Griessee, in the island of Java, and of all the men-of-war remaining to Holland in India;[1] during his servitude in the Caroline he was frequently intrusted with the command of the boats of that ship, and on one occasion succeeded in taking a flotilla of gun-vessels; and while officiating as First of the Fox (from which frigate he invalided in June, 1809) he was in charge of her boats at the capture of a French ship of 10 guns and 100 men under the batteries of Sapara. On 12 Nov. 1809 he was confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant. He next, between Jan. 1811 and June, 1812, served off Madeira and in the Bay of Cadiz in the Merope 10, Capt. Edw. Flin, and, as Senior, in the Alfred 74, Capt. Joshua Sydney Horton. During the six following months he commanded the Fearless gun-vessel off Cadiz and Tangier and in various parts of the Mediterranean; and from the close of 1813 until June, 1815, he was actively employed on the lakes of Canada, where a severe injury occasioned him the loss of sight in one eye. On his return to England in the autumn of 1815 he was for three months employed at Plymouth as First-Lieutenant in the Conway 24, Capt. John Tancock. His succeeding appointments were – 31 Jan. 1822, to the Owen Glendower 42, Capt. Hon. Robt. Cavendish Spencer, which ship was paid off in the following Sept. – 7 May, 1824, to the Aetna bomb, Capt. Williams Sandom, on the Mediterranean station – and 19 Aug. 1825, as Senior, to the Galatea 42, Capt. Chas. Sullivan, employed on particular service. He attained his present rank 20 Aug. 1828, and has since been on half-pay.
Commander Richards married Miss E. Worth, of Plymouth.
- ↑ Although on board the Culloden, he had been nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Belliqueux 64. This ship, however, he never joined.