A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Trefusis, George Rolle Walpole
TREFUSIS. (Captain, 1824. f-p., 16; h-p., 25.)
The Honourable George Rolle Walpole Trefusis, born 8 April, 1793, is third son (by Albertina Marianne, daughter of John Abraham Rodolph Gaulis, a native of Switzerland, of distinction) of Robert George William, 15th Lord Clinton; and brother (with the present Lord) of Robert Cotton John, the 16th peer, who was a Colonel in the Army, Aide-de-Camp to the King, and one of the Lords of the Bedchamber.
This officer entered the Navy, 24 April, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Centaur 74, Commodore (afterwards Rear-Admiral) Sir Sam. Hood. On 25 Sept. following he was in company off Rochefort with the Mars and Monarch 74’s at the capture of four heavy French frigates; in 1807 he assisted at the siege of Copenhagen and witnessed the surrender of Madeira; and on 26 Aug. 1808 he aided, in conjunction with the Implacable 74, in taking, near Rogerswick, in sight of the whole Russian fleet, the 74-gun ship Sewolod, after a close and furious conflict, in which the Centaur had 3 killed and 27 wounded, and the enemy 180 killed and wounded. From March, 1810, until Nov. 1813, Mr. Trefusis served with the present Lord Radstock in the Mediterranean on board the Thames 32 and Volontaire 38. In the boats of the former frigate, supported by those of the Pilot and Weazle sloops, he was present, 25 July, 1810, at the capture and destruction, under the batteries of Amantea, of a convoy of 31 vessels, laden for Murat’s army, together with seven large gun-boats and five scampavias;[1] and he was also in them at the demolition, 16 July, 1811, of 10 large armed feluccas on the beach close to Cetraro, in the Gulf of Polioastro. He was in the boats of the Volontaire under Lieut. Isaac Shaw, when they brought out from the harbour of Palamos, 26 Dec. 1811, a wellprotected privateer, La Décidé, mounting 2 long 6- pounders (pierced for 6) with a cargo of provisions, from Cette, bound to Barcelona; and again, 23 June, 1812, when they captured a felucca, La Colombe, of 1 long gun, 8 svrivels, and 45 men – an exploit which occasioned the British a loss of a Midshipman and 2 sailors wounded, and the enemy of 3 killed and 7 wounded. On 10 Dec. 1813, Mr. Trefusis, then a Midshipman on board the Royal William, was made a Lieutenant into the Ethalion 36, Capts. Edm. Heywood and Wm. Hugh Debbie, stationed on the coast of Ireland, where he served until Aug. 1815. In the ensuing Dec. he joined the Iris 36, bearing the flag of Sir Home Popham off Greenwich; he was promoted, 2 March, 1816, to the rank of Commander; and he was next, 8 Nov. 1821 and 6 Feb. 1824, appointed to the Redwing 18 and, Jasper 10. In those vessels he was engaged in affording protection to the oyster fishery between Jersey and the coast of France – a service for which he was advanced to Post rank 24 June, 1824. His last appointments were, 18 May, 1831, and 25 Sept. and 9 Oct. 1832, to the North Star 28, Winchester 52 (flag-ship of Sir Edw. Griffith Colpoys), and Sapphire 28, all on the North America and West India station, the Barbadoes division of which he was sent, in July, 1833, to take charge of by Sir Geo. Cockburn, the Commander-in-Chief, whose approbation of the whole of his proceedings was in June, 1834, communicated to him. The state of discipline in which Capt. Trefusis, without recourse to corporal punishment, maintained the Sapphire likewise elicited from Sir George an expression of his satisfaction. He paid the Sapphire off in Oct. 1834; and, not having been since employed, accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
Capt. Trefusis married, 8 Jan. 1839, Margaret Frances, second daughter of John James, Esq., of Houghton Lodge, Hants, by whom he has issue.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1860.