A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wallis, James (b)
WALLIS. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 11; h-p., 32.)
James Wallis was born 7 April, 1792.
This officer entered the Navy, 3 July, 1804, as Third.-cl. Vol., on board the Borer 14, Lieut.-Commander Rich. Wilbraham; in which vessel he continued employed as Midshipman (a rating he attained 18 Sept. 1805) in Hoseley Bay, and off Harwich and Calais, until April, 1806. Joining, in the following month, the Ganges 74, Capts. Peter Halkett and Thos. Dundas, he cruized in that ship among the Western Islands, and was present, 27 Sept. in the same year, at the capture, by a squadron under Sir Thos. Louis, of the French frigate Le Président of 44 guns. In Sept. 1807, having witnessed the fall of Copenhagen, he assisted in fitting out one of the Danish ships-of-the-line. He sailed subsequently for Lisbon, and while there was employed in dismantling the different forts and batteries on the banks of the Tagus, in order to effect a clear run for the English transports and other shipping in the event of the French succeeding against the Portuguese capital. He had previously, while lent to the army, aided with a party of marines under Lieut. Edm. Stacpoole in occupying a fort at Pascediarcus. Accompanying the expedition of 1809 to the Walcheren, Mr. Wallis, from the surrender of the island until its evacuation by the British, participated, in command of a gun-boat, in all the anxious and arduous duties attached to the flotilla service. In the summer of 1810 we find him, in a lugger row-boat, carrying 1 6-pounder and 24 men, commanded by Lieut. Stacpoole, engaged, in company with a similar boat, in driving on shore and in there burning to the water’s edge two Danish cutter-privateers, each mounting 1 long gun and 4 howitzers on pivots, and manned between them with 80 men. This exploit the Admiralty acknowledged by a letter of thanks, which was read to those who achieved it on the quarter-deck of the Ganges. In April, 1811, Mr. Wallis removed to the Royal George 100, bearing the flag of Sir Thos. Williams in Quiberon Bay; and in the ensuing Oct. he joined the Tremendous 74, Capt. Robt. Campbell. In that ship, accompanied by the Poictiers 74, Capt. Sam. Jackson, he was for about 36 hours, in the early part of 1812, in pursuit, in the Bay of Biscay, of a French squadron consisting of four ships-of-the-line and two frigates. When afterwards in the Adriatic he assisted at the blockade of Venice and the reduction of Trieste. For eight weeks he was employed in the ship’s barge, without more than once having his clothes off. During that period he was twice, 24 Nov. and 1 Dec. 1813, in action under Capt. Fairfax Moresby, of the Wizard sloop, with the French troops, in the river Po. In May, 1815, he was present at Naples at the surrender, to a force under Capt. Campbell, of two Neapolitan line-of-battle ships and a frigate. In the course of the same month (he had passed his examination in 1811) he was placed on half-pay, having been advanced, 10 Feb. preceding, to the rank of Lieutenant. He has not been since afloat.
Lieut. Wallis married, 10 Feb. 1818, Miss Mary Anne Dalton.