A Naval Biographical Dictionary/St. Clair, David Latimer
ST. CLAIR. (Retired Captain, 1847.)
David Latimer St. Clair, born in May, 1786, at Chichester, co. Sussex, is third son of Colonel Wm. St. Clair, of the 25th Regt. (who was at Gibraltar with the Duke of Kent, and was for 46 years a faithful servant of his country), by Augusta, daughter of John Tinling, Esq.; and grandson of a General officer, who was descended from Walderness, Comte de St. Clare, the representative of an ancient French family, the cousin-german of William the Conqueror (with whom he came over to England in 1066), and the common ancestor of Lord Sinclair, and the Earls of Rosslyn and Caithness. Capt. St. Clair is brother of Colonel Jas. Pattison St. Clair; of Capt. Wm. St. Clair, of the 25th Foot, who commanded a regiment, composed of the flank companies of the Army, and was killed, at the storming of the heights of Sourrier, in Martinique, 2 Feb. 1809; and of Colonel Thos. Staunton St. Clair, of the 1st Royals, who received four medals for his services during the Peninsular War. His mother was sister of Lieut.-General Tinling, of the Grenadier Guards; of Lieut.-General David Latimer Tinling-Widdrington; of Rear-Admiral Chas. Tinling; and of Major Geo. Tinling, of the 11th Foot.
This officer (whose name had been borne, since April, 1793, on the books of the Queen 98, Andromeda frigate, Orion 74, and Queen again) embarked, in March, 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Royal Sovereign 100, Capt. Wm. Bedford, bearing the flag in the Channel of Vice-Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. Becoming Midshipman, in Sept. 1797, of the Scorpion sloop, commanded by his uncle, Capt. Chas. Tinling, he accompanied, in 1799, the expedition to the Helder, and made a voyage, afterwards, to the West Indies. He next, between Nov. 1800 and the date of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant 17 April, 1802, served, on the Western station, in the Nymphe 36, Capt. Stair Douglas. During that period he was badly wounded by the bursting of a gun, and was in consequence confined for three months to the hospital at Plymouth. He was also, on one occasion, thrown overboard by the breaking of the spanker-boom, on which he happened to be standing when it caught the main-stay of a smuggling-vessel in her attempt to escape to leeward. Being, in Nov. 1802, appointed to the Caroline 36, Capts. Benj. Wm. Page and Peter Rainier, he assisted, during his proximate passage to the East Indies, at the capture of several French vessels, and at the detention of two others belonging to the Batavian Republic – one of them the De Haasje brig-of-war. On his arrival in India he aided at the taking, 5 Jan. and 4 Feb. 1804, of the privateers Les Frères Unis of 8 guns (pierced for 16) and 134 men, and Le Général de Caen, of 22 guns and 200 men. In 1806, Lieut. St. Clair was under the necessity of invaliding, at Bombay, from the effects of ill health produced by the fatigue he had undergone, as First of the Caroline, in the docking and refitting of that ship.[1] On his arrival in England, which did not take place until after a lapse of nearly 14 months, he found that, including his passage-money, he had necessarily expended the sum of 250 guineas; no part whereof, although he exhibited the required documents, together with a certificate from the Commander-in-Chief, was at any time restored to him. Even the payment of the half-pay, to which he was for the time entitled, was for upwards of ten years withheld. After serving with Capt. Henry Folkes Edgell in the Cornelia frigate, on the Home station, he was appointed, in April, 1810, to the Victory 100, bearing the flag of Sir Jas. Saumarez in the Baltic; where, with the boats under his orders, he succeeded in boarding and carrying, sixty miles from the ship’s anchorage, two Danish privateers, six of whose people were killed and several wounded, with the loss to the British of not more than 1 man killed and another shot through both arms. For the conduct he displayed on this occasion he had the gratification of receiving the thanks of his Admiral publicly on the quarter-deck. On 21 March, 1812, about four months after he had invalided from the Victory, he was nominated Acting-Commander of the Sheldrake sloop-of-war; in which vessel he made prize, in the vicinity of Möen Island, of L’Aimable d’Hervilly privateer, ran, in company with the Aquilon frigate, Capt. Wm. Bowles, through the Malmo passage without pilots, and united with the same ship in destroying seven large merchant-ships, in the face of 1500 soldiers posted on the cliffs near Stralsund. In 1813, having been confirmed in command of the Reynard sloop 20 Nov. 1812, Capt. St. Clair accompanied the Orion 74, Capt. Sir Arch. Collingwood Dickson, and 15 Russian line-of-battle ships from the neighbourhood of Bornholm, through the Great Belt, to England. In Dec. of the same year he was directed by the Admiralty to carry on the port duties at Harwich, and to assume command there of a squadron of gun-brigs and cutters, and of as many as 20 sail of transports. While so employed he superintended the embarkation of H.R.H. the Comte d’Artois, H.S.H. the Hereditary Prince of Orange, the late Marquess of Londonderry, the present Earl of Ripon, and General Pozzo di Borgo – the former on their way to Holland in consequence of the revolution in that country, the others en route for the head-quarters of the Allied Sovereigns at Chatillon. In the early part of 1814 we find Capt. St. Clair serving with activity on the north coast of Spain, and acquiring the highest commendation of Rear-Admiral Chas. Vinicombe Penrose for his gallant and zealous behaviour during the operations on the river Gironde. After the grand review at Spithead, Capt. St. Clair, who on that occasion had the honour of dining with the Allied Sovereigns, proceeded off Cadiz, where he captured a large merchant-brig, and chased, but could not overtake, a corvette belonging to the United States. He was subsequently sent by Lord Exmouth to Tunis with despatches; was stationed off the island of Elba during its occupation by Napoleon Buonaparte; and, while cruizing in the Archipelago, captured two Greek pirates, and rendered essential service to the Captain, officers, and crew of the Phoenix frigate when wrecked in Chismé harbour, 20 Feb. 1816. About this period Capt. St. Clair experienced a severe disappointment. Under an idea that the officer first on the Admiralty List for promotion (Capt. Chas. Hope Reid of the Calypso 18) had been promoted at home. Lord Exmouth had, from feelings of friendship, appointed him, in his stead, to the Trident 64, guard-ship at Malta. Finding, however, that such was not the case, his Lordship, having no alternative, cancelled the arrangement he had made. Capt. St. Clair continued in consequence in the Reynard until paid off in 1817; and, unable to procure either promotion (although he had been about five years in command of a sloop-of-war) or further employment, accepted, 20 Nov. 1847, the rank he now holds.
The Captain is a Knight of the Order of the Sword of Sweden, and Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for co. Gloucester. He married, in 1819, his cousin, Elizabeth Isabella, daughter of John Farhill, Esq., of Chichester, Tutor to H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, and grand-daughter of Sir Thos. Wilson, Kt.
- ↑ Previously to leaving her he lost the use of his thumb by a sabre cut received while in the act of boarding a privateer.