A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Strugnell, William Baker
STRUGNELL. (Lieut., 1814. f-p., 31; h-p., 21.)
William Baker Strugnell was born 27 Jan. 1788, at Plymouth, co. Devon.
This officer entered the Navy, 24 Nov. 1795, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Impérieuse 38, Capt. Lord Augustus FitzRoy, with whom he continued to serve at the Cape of Good Hope, in the Sphynx 20, until May, 1799. In the following July he joined the Shannon 38, Capt. Chas. Dudley Pater; and in that ship, in which he remained until April, 1802, he accompanied, as Midshipman, the expedition to Holland, and witnessed the surrender of the Dutch squadron under Admiral Storey. He was employed next on the Plymouth station, from July, 1802, until May, 1805, in the Fisgard and Naiad frigates, both commanded by Capt. Jas. Wallis, Ville de Paris 110, bearing the flag of Hon. Wm. Cornwallis, and Généreux prison-ship, Lieut.-Commander Wm. Lanyon. He was then received on board the Aeolus 32, Capt. Lord Wm. FitzRoy; and on 4 Nov. 1805 he was present in Sir Rich. Strachan’s action with the four French ships-of-the-line which had escaped from Trafalgar. In June, 1809, being then on the North American station, he removed (he had assisted in the preceding Feb. at the reduction of Martinique) to the Swiftsure 74, Capt. John Conn; he went back in the ensuing Oct. to the Aeolus, commanded at the time by Lord Jas. Townshend; and in 1810 he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Atalanta sloop, Capt. Fred. Hickey. In Dec. 1811, nearly seven months after he had been superseded from the Atalanta, he joined the Malta 84, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Benj. Hallowell in the Mediterranean, where he served as Master’s Mate in the pinnace in an attack made upon the arsenal of Ciotat, near Toulon, and commanded a gun-boat on the coast of Spain in co-operation with the army under Sir John Murray. In Oct. 1813 he was again ordered to act as Lieutenant in the Pompée 74, Capt. Sir Jas. Atholl Wood. He was confirmed to that ship 18 July, 1814, but left her in the following Oct., and was subsequently employed – from Oct. 1824 until June, 1826, in the Ramillies 74, Coast-Blockade ship, Capts. Wm. M‘Culloch and Hugh Pigot – in 1826-7, as an Agent for Transports afloat, in which capacity he received the thanks of the Navy Board for his exertions as connected with an expedition to Lisbon – from June, 1827, until Aug. 1830, in command of the Swallow Revenue-vessel, on the Irish station, where his conduct in rescuing the crew of a French hrig wrecked on the Isle of Man procured him a silver medal from the Royal National Shipwreck Institution – and, from June, 1839, until June, 1844, in charge of the Admiralty Semaphores at Putney and Chelsea. He has filled the appointment, since 13 Feb. 1845, of Admiralty Agent on board a contract mail steam-vessel.
From 1834 until 1838 Lieut. Strugnell was a Stipendiary Magistrate at Trinidad under the Act for the Abolition of Slavery. He married, 17 March, 1821, Miss Emma Bishop, and was left a widower, with nine children, in 1843.