A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wauchope, Robert
WAUCHOPE. (Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 1849. f-p., 18; h-p., 27.)
Robert Wauchope is fifth son of the late Capt. Andrew Wauchope, of Niddrie, co. Mid-Lothian, by Alicia, sister of the late General Sir David Baird, Colonel of the 24th Foot, who was created a Baronet for his gallantry at the storming of Seringapatam, was afterwards Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope, and lost an arm at Corunna. His eldest brother, Andrew, was killed at the battle of the Pyrenees in command of the 20th Foot; his next, the late Lieut.-Colonel Wm. Wauchope, died in 1826, leaving, with other issue, a daughter, Hersey Susan Sidney, married to Capt. Geo. Elliot, R.N., son of Vice-Admiral Hon. Geo. Elliot, C.B.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy in Dec. 1802; and embarked, in Dec. 1805, on board the Resistance 38, Capt. Chas. Adam, with whom he continued employed as Midshipman and Master’s Mate until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, 21 Dec. 1808. The Resistance, while he was in her, formed part of the squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren at the capture of the Marengo 80, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule, 13 March, 1806. She brought a quantity of freight home, also, from Vera Cruz; made prize of L’Aigle privateer, of 14 guns and 66 men; and conveyed a large body of general officers to the coast of Portugal. Being appointed, 9 Jan. 1809, to the Magicienne 36, Capt. Lucius Curtis, fitting for the Cape station, Mr. Wauchope assisted in that ship at the reduction, in July, 1810, of the Ile de Bourbon; and in the following month he was engaged, in company with the 36-gun frigates Néréide, Iphigenia, and Magicienne, in a series of gallant but unfortunate operations which terminated, with a loss to the Magicienne of 8 killed and 20 wounded, in the self-destruction of her and the Sirius, the capture of the Néréide, and the surrender, to a powerful French squadron, of the Iphigenia, at the entrance of Port Sud-Est, Isle of France. After the Magicienne had been destroyed, he was sent in a boat with intelligence of that which had occurred to Commodore Josias Rowley, of the Boadicea 38, at the Ile de Bourbon, a distance across of 140 miles. On the following morning he fell in with the Commodore at sea, and was by him picked up. On 31 of the same month he was appointed to the Emma 12, Lieut.-Commander Henry Lynne; and in the ensuing Dec, having removed to the Nisus 38, Capt. Philip Beaver, he co-operated in the reduction of the Isle of France. He returned to England in the Iphigenia frigate in the spring of 1811; and on 21 March, 1812, at which period he was again serving at the Cape of Good Hope, in the Lion 64, flag-ship of Hon. Robt. Stopford, he was promoted to the rank of Commander. He was afterwards employed – from 23 June, 1813, until advanced to Post-rank 6 June, 1814, in the Swinger 12, in the Channel – from 19 April, 1816, until 20 Dec. 1819, in the Eurydice 34, at St. Helena – and, from 30 May, 1834, until 6 June, 1838, in the Thalia 46, flag-ship of the late Sir Patrick Campbell at the Cape of Good Hope. He has since been on half-pay. He attained Flag-rank in May, 1849.
Rear-Admiral Wauchope is the inventor of the “Time-Ball,” for ascertaining the rates of chronometers, in use at the Greenwich Observatory, and at Portsmouth, St. Helena, and the Cape of Good Hope. He married, 17 April, 1822, Anne, daughter of the late Sir David Carnegie, Bart.