A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wilkinson, Frederick Augustus
WILKINSON. (Commander, 1824. f-p., 10; h-p., 23.)
Frederick Augustus Wilkinson, born 29 April, 1798, at Drinkstone, Suffolk, is second son of the Rev. W. Wilkinson, Rector of Redgrave, in that co.; and nephew of Sir John Osborne, Bart., formerly a Lord of the Admiralty and M.P. for Bedfordshire.
This officer entered the Navy, 16 Nov. 1814 (after having studied for two years at the Royal Naval College), on board the Berwick 74, Capt. Edw. Brace, under whom he co-operated, in 1815, in the reduction of Gaeta, and visited, in the spring of 1816, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, for purposes connected with the abolition of Christian slavery. On 27 Aug. in the latter year, having removed to the Superb 74, Capt. Chas. Ekins, he assisted at the bombardment of Algiers. He next, in Feb. 1817, joined the Conqueror 74, fitting for the flag of Rear-Admiral Robt. Plampin, Commander-in-Chief at St. Helena, where he was for four months lent to the Hyaena. In the summer of 1819 he came home in the Podargus 14, Capt. Hon. Henry John Rous; but returning soon to the Conqueror, he continued in her, employed in guarding the person of Napoleon Buonaparte, until Jan. 1820, when, having been advanced to the rank of Lieutenant 5 Oct. preceding, he again left for England in the Sappho 18, Capt. Jas. Hanway Plumridge. His last appointments were – 26 July, 1820, 25 April, 1823, and 30 April, 1824, to the Cambrian 48, Dispatch 18, and Chanticleer 10, Capts. Gawen Wm. Hamilton, Wm. Clarke Jervoise, and Burton Macnamara, all in the Mediterranean; where, during the war between the Greeks and Turks, he aided, in the Cambrian, in saving the lives of 3000 of the contending parties. On leaving the Chanticleer, in Aug. 1824, he took up a Commander’s commission bearing date 31 March in that year.
Commander Wilkinson married, 9 Feb. 1830, Emma Maria, third daughter of the late Henry Bowles, Esq., of Cuckfield, Sussex.