A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Sykes, Joseph
SYKES. (Lieut., 1817. f-p., 8; h-p., 30.)
Joseph Sykes was born 14 Sept. 1795.
This officer entered the Navy, 10 Oct. 1809, as Third-cl. Vol., on board the Warspite 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood; under whom, on proceeding to the Mediterranean, we find him, 20 July, 1810, present in a very gallant skirmish, in which the British with a slender force beat back a powerful division of the French Toulon fleet. On 29 May, 1813, being then in Basque Roads, he assisted, in command of the Warspite’s cutter, at the capture of the American letter-of-marque Flash, of 2 long 9-pounders, 14 swivels, and 20 men. While on his passage, 21 Oct. following, in the Royalist 18, Capt. Jas. John Gordon Bremer, to join the Belle Poule frigate, he was afforded an opportunity of contributing, in company with the Scylla 18, and within sight of the Rippon 74, to the capture of the French frigate Le Weser of 40 guns and 340 men, which did not surrender until after a severely contested action productive to the Royalist of a loss of 2 men killed and 9 wounded. Having reached the Belle Poule, he took part in that ship, under Capt. Geo. Harris, in the operations of 1814 in the Gironde, where he witnessed the destruction of the Regulus 74, of three brigs-of-war and several smaller vessels, and of all the forts and batteries on the north side of the river. On 13 and 28 June in the same year he was received in succession on board the Impregnable 98, flag-ship of H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence at Spithead, and Liffey 50, commanded in the Channel by Capt. John Hancock; in Aug. 1815 he removed to the Bulwark 74, Capt. Geo. M‘Kinley, lying at Sheerness; and in Jan. 1816 (he had passed his examination 1 Nov. preceding) he joined the Alceste 38, Capt. Murray Maxwell. In the latter ship he accompanied Lord Amherst as Master’s Mate in his expedition to China, and was wrecked in the Straits of Gaspar, on his passage home, 18 Feb. 1817. He was advanced to his present rank 1 Sept. following; and has since been on half-pay.
Lieut. Sykes is a Deputy-Lieutenant and Acting- Magistrate for co. York, a Justice of the Peace for the East Riding, and an Elder Brother of the Trinity House at Hull. He married, 20 Oct. 1825, Miss Egginton. One of his sons, Joseph Alfred, is a Lieutenant in the 94th Regiment; and another, Cam, in the 48th.