A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Willes, George Wickens

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WILLES, K.F.M. (Captain, 1814.)

George Wickens Willes died in command of the Vanguard 80, at Malta, 26 Oct. 1846, aged 61. He was brother of Lieut. Cornelius Willes,^[1] R.N., who died at Gosport, Hants, 10 July, 1810, aged 22; also of Lieut.-Colonel Jas. Irwin Willes, R.M. (1848); and cousin of Lieut. Jas. Irwin, R.N. His father, who was in the service, lost a leg early in life.

This officer entered the Navy, in 1794, as a Volunteer, on board the Royal William, Capt. Fras. Pickmore, bearing the flag of Sir Peter Parker at Spithead. He removed, towards the close of 1796, to the Fancy,^[2] Capt. John Irwin, stationed in the North Sea; and he was next, between 1797 and the date of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant 6 Nov. 1801, employed off Cadiz, and in the Channel and Mediterranean, as Midshipman, in the Prince George 98, Lively 32, Boston 32, Formidable 98, Queen Charlotte 100, all commanded by the officer last mentioned, Success 32, Capt. Shuldham Peard, and Barfleur 98, commanded again by Capt. Irwin. The Prince George, Formidable, Queen Charlotte, and Barfleur bore the flags of Admirals Wm. Parker, Sir Chas. Thompson, and Cuthbert Collingwood. In the Prince George Mr. Willes fought in the action off Cape St. Vincent, 14 Feb. 1797: in the Success he served at the blockade of Malta, and assisted at the capture, 18 Feb. and 24 Aug. 1800, of the French 74-gun ship Le Généreux, and 40-gun frigate La Diane. He was on board of her too when she was herself taken, 13 Feb. 1801, by a French squadron under M. Ganteaume. At the capture of Le Généreux he was severely wounded in the head and breast. His appointments, in the capacity of Lieutenant, were to the Sophie sloop, Capts. Philip L. J. Roeenhagen and Wm. Mansell, Active 38, Capt. Rich. Hussey Moubray, and Spartan of 46 guns, Capt. Jahleel Brenton. In the Active he passed the Dardanells with Sir John Duckworth, and united in the attack made upon the Turkish squadron off Point Pesquies 19 Feb. 1807, on which occasion he succeeded, in the boats of the Active, in destroying one of the enemy’s frigates at the time on shore. As First-Lieutenant of the Spartan, Mr. Willes found frequent opportunities of distinguishing himself. He commanded the boats of that frigate and of the Amphion 32 and Mercury 28, and behaved in a manner in the highest degree creditable to him at the bringing off, 23 April, 1809, of 13 deeply-laden vessels from the Mole of Pesaro, in the Adriatic;^[3] the castle at which place was by him blown up. With the boats of his own ship and of the Mercury again under his orders he landed, 2 May, 1809, in the port of Ceseratico, took possession of a battery of 2 long 24-pounders, whose fire had been silenced, and, after having destroyed the former, spiked the latter, and blown up a castle and magazine, re-embarked, bringing away with him 12 vessels laden with corn, hemp, and iron. In this instance, also, Mr. Willes’ gallantry and exertions were much praised. We find him next contributing to the reduction of the islands of Lusin, Zante, Cephalonia, and Cerigo. Cerigo was defended by three forts, one of which, St. Joaquin, mounted 2 18 and 2 9 pounders, and was “completely silenced by the gallant manner in which he attacked it in a prize-schooner under his orders, with a party of the 35th Regt. on board.” ^[4] On 3 May, 1810, it was Mr. Willes’ fortune to share in a glorious single-handed victory gained by the Spartan in the Bay of Naples (after a contest in which the British sustained a loss, out of 258 men, of 10 men killed and 22 wounded) over a Franco- Neapolitan squadron, carrying altogether 95 guns and about 1400 men. “I was myself,” says Capt. Brenton in his official account of this achievement, “wounded about the middle of the action, which lasted two hours; but my place was most ably supplied by Mr. Willes, First-Lieutenant, whose merit becomes more brilliant by every opportunity he has of showing it; he is without exception one of the best and most gallant officers I ever met with.”^[5] For his conduct Mr. Willes, who had been also wounded, was deservedly promoted to the rank of Commander by a commission bearing date 2 June, 1B10.^[6] In the following Nov. he was appointed to the Leveret brig, in the North Sea; where he made prize, in the course of 1811-12, of a Danish cutter^[7] of 6 guns and 20 men, a French lugger, Le Prospère, of 3 guns and 39 men, another cutter, Le Dunkerquois of 14 guns and 36 men,^[8] and Le Brave, a lugger of 4 guns and 22 men – all of them privateers. After serving for a few months in the Bacchus sloop on the Cork station, he was promoted to Post-rank 7 June, 1814. His subsequent appointments were – 3 Oct. 1817 and 15 Dec. 1818, to the Cherub 26 and Wye 26, in which ships he served until May, 1820, on the African and North Sea stations – 17 Jan. 1823, for four years, to the Brazen 26, employed at first in South America and next on the coast of Africa, where he captured eight armed slavers and liberated 998 persons from bondage – 8 Dec. 1835, to the Dublin 50, as Flag-Captain to Sir Graham Eden Hamond in South America, whence he returned in the summer of 1836 – and, 4 Feb. 1845, to the Vanguard 80. In the latter ship he served with the Channel squadron and in the Mediterranean until the period of his death as above.

Capt. Willes^[9] was a Deputy-Lieutenant for co. Southampton. He married, 8 Jan. 1814, Anne, second daughter of the late Sir Edmund Lacon, Bart., M.P. for North Yarmouth, by whom he has left, with other issue, a son, Lieut. G. O. Willes, R.N., and a daughter, married to Lieut. Hon. Oliver W. M. Lambart, R.N. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.

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1. Lieut. C. Willes was First of the Grasshopper 18, in an action with three Spanish vessels of war off Cape Palos. (See Rear-Admiral Thos. Searle.) In his exertions to get one of them afloat (she having run ashore) he burst a blood-vessel – the cause, ultimately, of his death.
2. Or Fairy.
3. Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1257.
4. Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1929.
5. Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1134.
6. As a reward for his great courage and intrepidity, “as First Lieutenant of the Spartan,” Capt. Willes was granted permission, 26 .Tune, 1812, to accept and wear the insignia of the Third Class of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, conferred upon him by the King of the Two Sicilies.
7. Taken by the boats.
8. Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 2194.
9. In addition to the wounds already noticed, he had received a musket-ball through the leg, during the war, in a boat attack.