A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Thurtell, Charles
THURTELL. (Commander, 1843. f-p., 19; h-p., 21.)
Charles Thurtell was born 29 Feb. 1796, at Bradwell, co. Suffolk.
This officer entered the Navy, 26 March, 1807, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Alert, Capt. Robt. Williams; and in the course of the same year was present, under Admiral Gambier, in the attack upon Copenhagen. In May, 1809, five months after he had left the Alert, he joined the Aboukir 74, Capts. Geo. Parker and Thos. Browne, in which ship we find him accompanying the expedition to the Scheldt (where he was entrusted with the command of a gun-boat), and employed, in 1812, under the flag of the present Sir Thos. Byam Martin, at the defence of Riga. He there had charge of a Russian boat, and was for three months in almost daily action with the enemy. In Nov. 1812 he was nominated Acting-Master of the Briseis 10, Capt. John Boss, in the Baltic; he served next, from Nov. 1813 until May, 1815, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, in the Nymphen 36 and Liffey 50, both commanded by Capt. John Hancock, on the North Sea and Channel stations; and in March, 1817, and Sept. 1818, he became Admiralty-Midshipman of the Cadmus 10, Capt. John Gedge, again in the North Sea, and Rochfort 80, bearing the flags of Sir Thos. Fras. Fremantle and Sir Graham Moore, in the Mediterranean. At the general promotion in 1815, notwithstanding that a very urgent request was made in his favour to the First Lord of the Admiralty by the Magistrates of the city of Norwich, Mr. Thurtell was passed over; nor did he succeed in obtaining a commission until Oct. 1821, when, being at the top of the Admiralty list in the Mediterranean, he was appointed to a vacancy in the Medina 20, Capts. the Earl of Huntingdon, Rich. Anderson, and Patrick Duff Henry Hay. In Sept. 1820, being at the time in command of the Racer cutter, tender to the Rochfort, he was directed by Commodore Hon. Anthony Maitland, of the Glasgow 50, then at Malta, to proceed to Palermo with a despatch for Capt. John Donaldson Boswall of the Spey 20, and, in the event of not finding him at that place, to repair forthwith to the port of Messina, and thence to return to Malta. On his arrival at Palermo, not meeting with the Spey, and the city being in a state of insurrection and closely besieged by the Neapolitan naval and military forces, who were hourly expected to carry it by storm, he received through the hands of H.B.M.’s Consul-General an address couched in the strongest terms from the English merchants and other residents, entreating that, at a moment of such distress, he would remain by them, and afford them such protection as he could. With this solicitation he felt it his duty, under the circumstances, to comply. By his spirited interference he obtained from General Pepe, the Neapolitan Commander-in-Chief, permission for the British to seek safety either in his camp or on board the men-of-war in the Bay. The Racer afterwards, at the request of the chiefs of the contending parties, became the theatre on which, as the only neutral spot open to them, they entered into and concluded a treaty of peace. The moment the ratification was signed, she announced the joyful intelligence by a royal salute – a salute which was returned by the Neapolitan fleet and all the forts. The zeal and exertions thus displayed by Mr. Thurtell, and the important services he rendered, in a situation in which no Midshipman was perhaps ever before placed, obtained him the grateful thanks as well of the British residents as of General Pepe and of Prince Patterno, President of the Provisional Junta of Palermo. The history of his proceedings was made the subject of a special communication to the Foreign office by the present Lord Heytesbury, then Ambassador at the court of Naples; but, owing to the circumstance, perhaps, of no official representation being made of them at the Admiralty, he received not the least reward. His appointments after he left the Medina were – 24 July, 1822, and 3 May, 1824, as First, to the Chanticleer 10 and Dispatch 18, Capts. Burton Macnamara and Edw. Hinton Scott, both in the Mediterranean, whence he returned at the close of 1824 – 14 Sept. 1839, to the San Josef 110, bearing the flags at Plymouth of Admirals-Superintendent Fred. Warren, and Sir Sam. Pym – and, 26 Sept. 1842, again as First, to the Caledonia 120, bearing the flag of Sir David Milne, Commander-in-Chief at the same port. He was advanced to his present rank 12 Jan. 1843, and has since been on half-pay.
Remindful of his former services, the King of Naples, in 1838, made an application to Government for the promotion of Mr. Thurtell; and at other times the Corporation of Norwich, the Attorney- General (Sir Robt. Grant), the Dukes of Devonshire and Leeds, Admiral Sir Edw. Codrington,.and other distinguished personages similarly interested themselves in his behalf. The Commander married, 2 May, 1837, Ann Augusta, daughter of John Morgan, Esq., Surgeon R.N., by whom he has issue. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.