A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Tozer, Aaron
TOZER. (Captain, 1830. f-p., 1 7; h-p., 29.)
Aaron Tozer entered the Navy, 13 June, 1801, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Phoebe 36, Capt. Thos. Baker, with whom he served for nearly 12 months on the Irish station, part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman. He then sailed for the East Indies in the Dédaigneuse 36, Capt. Thos. Geo. Shortland; and on his return to England in 1803 in the Intrepid 64, Capt. Wm. Hargood, he joined in succession the Salvador del Mundo, Capt. Dilkes, Plantagenet 74, Capts. Graham Eden Hamond and Hon. Michael De Courcy, Pompée 74, Capt. Rich. Dacres, and Phoenix of 42 guns and 245 men, commanded by his former Captain, Baker. On 10 Aug. 1805 he assisted in the latter ship at the capture, after a desperate conflict, in which the British lost 12 killed and 28 wounded, and the enemy 27 killed and 44 wounded, of La Didon of 46 guns and 330 men, a remarkably fine frigate and the fastest sailer in the French navy. On this occasion he was so severely wounded by a musket-ball through the left arm, near the shoulder, that he has since been in a great measure deprived of the use of it.[1] Although he received no pension he was presented by the Patriotic Society with the sum of 50l. Being discharged from the Phoenix in Oct. 1805, he was received, in the following Dec. on board the Caesar 80; in which ship and the Triumph 74, bearing each the flag of Sir Rich. Strachan, he continued employed in the Channel as Master’s Mate until, having but just passed his examination, he was, as a reward for his conduct at the capture of La Didon, made Lieutenant, 11 Aug. 1807, into the York 74, Capt. Robt. Barton. In her, after witnessing the surrender of the island of Madeira, he sailed for the West Indies. He was subsequently appointed – 4 June, 1808, for a passage home, to the Lily sloop, Capt. Wm. Henry Shirreff – 22 Dec. following to the Victorious 74, Capts. Graham Eden Hamond and John Talbot, stationed in the North Sea and Mediterranean – and 25 Nov. 1812 and 19 Feb. 1813, to the Ocean 98, and Undaunted 38, Capts. Robt. Plampin and Thos. Ussher, also in the Mediterranean. In Aug. 1809 Mr. Tozer, then in the Victorious, accompanied the expedition to the Walcheren; and while there he was engaged with the batteries on the sea-front of Flushing. He co-operated next in the defence of Sicily, when threatened with an invasion by Joachim Murat, whose flotilla, in attempting, 29 June, 1810, to carry artillery and troops to Scylla, was driven back under the batteries of Bagnara by the British gun-boats, supported by the boats of the Victorious under his command. From this period until 23 Sept. he was often employed in a similar manner; after which, the French having abandoned their designs upon Sicily, he proceeded in the Victorious to the Adriatic. Here he again saw much detached service; and on one occasion, 19 April, 1811, he commanded the boats of his own ship, when, in conjunction with those of the Eagle and Magnificent 74’s, they took a gun-boat at the island of Corfu. On 22 Feb. 1812 he took part, in company with the Weasel 18, in a most noble conflict of four hours and a half, which terminated in the capture, with a loss to the Victorious of 27 men killed and 99 wounded, and to the enemy of 400 killed and wounded, of the French 74 Rivoli, whose consorts, three brigs and two gun-boats, were at the same time defeated. The merit displayed by Mr. Tozer during the action led to his being ultimately, as above, appointed First of the Undaunted, in command of the boats belonging to which frigate he was afforded an opportunity of very frequently distinguishing himself. On 18 March, 1813, he landed with 30 seamen and marines at Carri, to the westward of Marseilles, carried by storm a battery containing 4 long 24-pounders, 1 6-pounder, and a 13-inch mortar (the whole of which were destroyed), and brought out a tartan that had anchored there for protection. The enemy in this instance were strongly posted behind palisadoes, and stood their ground until the British were in the act of charging bayonets, when they turned and suffered a severe loss. The assailants had only 2 men killed and 1 wounded.[2] On 27 of the same month, while the boats of the Undaunted and Volontaire were engaged in bringing out a convoy from under a battery near Cape Croisset, which the former had silenced, Mr. Tozer was again severely wounded. On 2 and 3 May, 1813, he was engaged with the enemy’s batteries at Morjean and Marseilles; on 26 of the same month he brought out (after throwing her 4 guns and part of the cargo overboard) a ship which had been driven on shore at the mouth of the Rhone and lay under a heavy fire from a 3-gun battery and a party of soldiers along the beach; and on 1 Aug. following he cut out, in the Bay of Marseilles, a French ship of 570 tons under Greek colours, carrying 6 guns (pierced for 18), moored beneath the batteries on the island of Ratonneau, within grape-range of those on the island of Chateau d’If and within musket-shot of the island of Pomegue. Three days after the latter event he headed a party which, accompanied by the marines of the Caledonia 120, stormed and disabled a battery commanding the western entrance of Cassis Bay; and on 18 he united in a very gallant attack made by the boats of the Undaunted and Redwing and Espoir sloops, in company with a detachment from Sir Edw. Pellew’s fleet, on the batteries at the above town, where, after sustaining a loss of 4 men killed and 16 wounded, the British, in four hours, succeeded in capturing three gunboats and 24 vessels laden with merchandize. While advancing, in the performance of this service, to storm one of the batteries, he was once more very severely wounded by a canister-shot from an 18-pounder lodging in his left groin and by a musket-shot in his left hand. “Lieut. Tozer, I lament,” says Capt. Ussher in his official letter, “is most severely wounded; his gallantry I have often noticed.”[3] In consideration of his services and his suiferings he was promoted to the rank of Commander 15 June, 1814 (four months after he had invalided from the Undaunted); and allotted a pension for his wounds of 150l. per annum 2 Dec. 1815. He commanded the Cyrené 20, at Bermuda, from 25 July, 1818, until 16 Jan. 1822; and the William and Mary yacht, under Capt. John Chambers White, from 3 April, 1829, until advanced to his present rank 14 Jan. 1830. Since the latter date he has been on half-pay.
Capt. Tozer is Senior of 1830. He married, 5 June, 1827, Mary, eldest daughter of Henry Hutton, Esq., of Lincoln.