A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Strachey, Christopher
STRACHEY, K.S.V. (Captain, 1814. f-p., 22; h-p., 33.)
Christopher Strachey, born 10 Oct. 1778, is son of the late Venerable John Strachey, Archdeacon of Suffolk and Chaplain to George III.; and nephew of the late Sir Henry Strachey, Bart., M.P., of Sutton Court, co. Somerset, who was Private Secretary to Lord Clive in 1764, and subsequently Master of the Household to the King, Joint Secretary of the Treasury, and one of the Under Secretaries of State.
This officer entered the Navy, 17 Feb. 1792, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Royal Charlotte yacht, Capt. Sir Hyde Parker, lying at Deptford. On his return from a voyage to Lisbon in the Phaeton 38, Capt. Sir Andrew Snape Douglas, he was received, in April, 1794, on board the Queen Charlotte 100; and in that ship, which bore the flags in the Channel of Lords Howe and Keith, he fought in the actions of 28 and 29 May and 1 June. On 29 May, while stationed at his quarters on the middle deck, he was struck by a splinter and swept over the spare tiller. With the exception of an interval in 1795, during which he was lent to the Niger frigate, he continued in the Queen Charlotte until made Lieutenant, 15 March, 1798, into the Hyaena 24, Capts. Hon. Courtenay Boyle and David Lloyd; he was next, from Jan. 1800 until promoted to the rank of Commander, 29 April, 1802, employed, as he had been in the Hyaena, on the Mediterranean and Home stations, in the Resource troop-ship, Capt. John Crispo, as First-Lieutenant in the Heldin 28, Capt. Phillips, and in the Ville de Paris 110, flag-ship of Earl St. Vincent and Hon. Wm. Cornwallis; and on 17 May in the latter year he was appointed to the Jalouse 18. On 14 June, 1803, he gave chase to, and, aided by the Immortalité 36 and Cruizer 18, drove on shore and captured, after an hour’s engagement with the batteries near Blanc-Nez, L’Inabordable schooner and La Commode brig, each carrying 3 24-pounder3 and 1 18-pounder; and he succeeded, at other times, in making many prizes. In Aug. 1804, being then in the Mediterranean, Capt. Strachey was obliged, from the effects of fatigue he had endured while serving in the neighbourhood of Calais, to go on Shore at Malta; and the command of the Jalouse was in consequence given pro tem, to the present Rear-Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis. In the following year, however, having recovered his health, he went back to his ship; and he continued to command her until she returned to England and was paid off in May, 1806. The death of Nelson in 1805, we may here observe, occasioned Capt. Strachey a severe disappointment; the hero having more than once promised that in the event of a general action and of his obtaining the victory he would give him one of the first Post-vacancies. His next appointment was, 18 Oct. 1806, to the Dauntless praam of 22 guns; in which vessel he was directed, in the early part of 1807, to take under his orders at North Yarmouth the Valorous and Combatant, Capts. Reuben Caillaud Mangin and Alex. Rich. Mackenzie, and proceeded to the Baltic. On 19 May in the same year, while gallantly endeavouring to force her way up the Vistula, for the purpose of throwing supplies of powder and oats into Danzig, the Dauntless took the ground, and after exhausting, during nearly an hour’s contest with the batteries on both sides of the river, every means of defence, was reduced to the necessity of striking her colours. So conspicuous was Capt. Strachey’s conduct on the occasion that Napoleon Buonaparte himself declared that “it was worthy of being placed on the page of history.” He remained a prisoner in France until the end of the war; and on his return to England he had the gratification of being honourably acquitted by sentence of court-martial of all blame on account of the surrender of his ship, and of being praised by that tribunal for the gallantry and spirit he had displayed. Notwithstanding, however, the manner in which he had distinguished himself, and his long captivity, he was only allowed to take Post-rank from 28 June, 1814, although he considered he possessed a claim to earlier promotion both in accordance with the terms of the Jubilee brevet of 1810, and from the circumstance of a fellow-prisoner, the present Vice-Admiral Henry Gordon, who had been captured as a Commander in 1804 and liberated in 1811, having been advanced to Post-rank by a commission dated back to 8 April, 1805. In addition to the grievance we have above noticed, it should be likewise stated that on 7 June, 1814, Capt. Strachey was informed by the First Lord of the Admiralty that he had been that day advanced to Post-rank, and that his commission would be given to him as soon as he chose to apply for it. This, from certain conscientious scruples, he did not do until June, 1815, when to his surprise he found that the date of his commission had been altered to 28 June, 1814, and that 60 in consequence had been placed over his head. He accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
On 20 March, 1820, Capt. Strachey obtained the Royal permission to accept and wear the insignia of a Knight of the Order of St. Vladimir of Russia conferred upon him for his services before Danzig by the Emperor Alexander; who, in according him this mark of favour, acquainted him, through his Ambassador, Count Lieven, that, had it not been for the rupture between the two countries, the honour would have been granted sooner. He married at Verdun-sur-Meuse, during the period he was detained in France, Marguerite, daughter, by Marie Madelaine Charlotte d’Aubermesnil d’Aubermesuil [errata 1], of the Chevalier Philippe Henri de Roche, a Lieut.-Colonel of Infantry and Knight of the Order of St. Louis, the scion of an ancient family of Perigord and Normandy, who retired from active service at the commencement of the French Revolution. By that lady he has had issue four sons and three daughters. Two of the former, Theophilus William and Francis Ferdinand, died in the Hon.E.I.Co.’s Service in Feb. and May, 1843, the one a Lieutenant in the 29th Madras Native Infantry, the other an Ensign in the 9th Bombay Native Infantry; ill health obliged the third, Leonard, a Lieutenant in the 1st Madras Infantry, to throw up his commission; and the youngest, Louis Henry Placid, a Naval Cadet, is now with Sir Wm. Parker in the Hibernia 104, and is, we are told, progressing satisfactorily.