A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Tupman, George
TUPMAN. (Commander, 1815. f-p., 18; h-p., 34.)
George Tupman was born 16 Aug. 1785, and died 22 April, 1847.
This officer entered the Navy, 8 Aug. 1795, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Vengeance 74, Capts. John Rodney and Geo. Burlton, stationed in the Channel. In April, 1796, he joined, as a Supernumerary, the Royal William, Capt. Fras. Pickmore, lying at Portsmouth; and from Jan. 1797 until April, 1802, he was employed, at the Cape of Good Hope, on the coast of Ireland, and in the Mediterranean and Channel, a great part of the time as Midshipman, in the Saldanha 36, Capt. Geo. Burlton, Légère sloop, Capt. Joshua Rowley Watson, Haerlem 64 and Africaine 38, Capts. G. Burlton and Jas. Stevenson, and Acasta 40, Capt. Jas. Athol Wood. He then became Master’s Mate of the Galatea 32, Capt. Henry Heathcote; of which frigate, stationed on the Irish coast and in the West Indies, he was confirmed a Lieutenant, after having acted for some time as such, 19 March, 1805. On the morning of 14 Aug. 1804 he took part in her boats, four in number, carrying in the whole about 90 men, in a most desperate attempt made to cut out, from the neighbourhood of Anse-à- Mire, in the Saintes, the late British 14-gun ship-sloop Lily (newly-named the Général Ernouf), defended by several powerful batteries, having a privateer schooner moored across her hawse, so as to enfilade the assailants completely in their approach, and in every way prepared for a stern resistance. After having nobly struggled, and sustained for nearly an hour a murderous fire of great guns and musketry, which, killed and wounded 65 of their number (including the commanding officer, Lieut. Chas. Hayman, and the Master), the British, deprived of all hope of success, retired. Mr. Tupman returned home with Capt. Heathcote from the West Indies in the Desirée 36; and was afterwards appointed – 24 July, 1805, to the Ruby 64, Capts. Chas. Rowley, Temple Hardy, and John Draper, in the North Sea – 17 Nov. 1806, to the Meleager 36, Capts. John Broughton and Fred. Warren, in which ship he again proceeded to the West Indies – in 1809-10, to the Magicienne 36, Capt. Lucius Curtis, Leopard 50, Capt. Johnson, Africaine 38 and Néréide 36, Capt. Geo. Henderson, all on the Cape of Good Hope station, whence he returned to England in the Néréide in May, 1811 – 12 Dec. in the latter year, for five months, to the Bulwark 74, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Sir Rich. King off Brest and L’Orient – 22 July, 1813, to La Hogue 74, Capt. Hon. Thos. Bladen Capel, on the coast of North America, where he remained until Oct. 1814 – 1 March and 9 April, 1815, to the Crescent 38, Capt. John Quilliam, and Venerable 74, flag-ship of Sir Philip Chas. Durham, both ia the West Indies – and, 22 July in the same year, to the acting-command of the Chanticleer sloop. In the Meleager, Magicienne, Néréide, and La Hogue, Mr. Tupman was First-Lieutenant. In command of the barge, cutter, and jollyboat of the Meleager, containing 41 men, he attacked, 8 Feb. 1808, boarded in a very gallant manner, and carried (at anchor under the shore of St. Jago de Cuba, and perfectly prepared) the French felucca-rigged privateer Le Renard, mounting 1 long 6-pounder, with a large proportion of muskets, and 47 men, 18 of whom jumped overboard.[1] He was wrecked in the same frigate on the Barebush Key, near Port Royal, 30 July, 1808; and was present, we believe, in the Magicienne in the operations alluded to in our memoir of Sir L. Curtis, which terminated with the self-destruction of that ship at the entrance of Port Sud-Est, Isle of France. In the Chanticleer, in the command of which vessel he was confirmed 9 Oct. 1815, he was mentioned by Sir P. C. Durham for the admirable position he took up, and the manner in which he thereby facilitated the landing of the troops, at the reduction of Guadeloupe.[2] He left the Chanticleer in March, 1816; and did not afterwards go afloat.
Commander Tupman married, 31 Oct. 1837, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the late Alex. Lyon Emerson, Esq., M.D., of West Retford House, Notts, and Ulverscroft Abbey, co. Leicester, who entered the army in 1795, served as Physician to the Forces in Egypt, in Spain, at the Cape of Good Hope, &c., and became an Inspector of Hospitals. He has left issue three sons and one daughter.