Royal Naval Biography/Acklom, George
GEORGE ACKLOM, Esq.
Knight of the Imperial Russian Orders of St. Anne and St. Wladimer; and a Magistrate for the county of Middlesex.
[Post-Captain of 1812.]
This officer entered the navy, as a midshipman on board the Bedford 74, Captain Robert Man, in 1788; and subsequently served under Captain G. W. A. Courtenay, in the Pearl frigate, on the Mediterranean station. At the commencement of the French revolutionary war, he was again received on board the Bedford; and from that ship promoted into the Captain, another third rate, in Oct. 1794. We should here observe that he was employed on shore at Toulon during the occupation of that place by the allied forces under Admiral Lord Hood, and that he was consequently engaged in a variety of harassing services previous to his receiving a commission.
In 1795, we find Mr. Acklom serving as flag-lieutenant to Vice-Admiral Hotham and subsequently under Lord Hugh Seymour, in the Sans Pareil 80, on the Jamaica station. His next appointment was (1803) to be first of the Neptune 98, in which ship he assisted at the defeat of the combined fleets, off Cape Trafalgar, Oct. 21, 1805. In consequence of that glorious event, he was advanced to the rank of commander, Dec. 24 following.
Towards the close of 1807, Captain Acklom was appointed to the Ranger sloop, in which vessel he appears to have been very actively employed on the Baltic station, for nearly six years. Among the enemies’ vessels captured and destroyed by him during that period were three French and the same number of Danish privateers. His handsome conduct, in volunteering to work the Ranger through the ice, from Gottenburgh to Anholt, for the purpose of rescuing a shipwrecked crew, will be noticed in our memoir of Captain Henry James Lyford.
The next service of importance performed by Captain Acklom, was that of safely conducting a large fleet of merchantmen through the Malmo Channel; for which, and for his zealous exertions on every previous occasion, he was very deservedly promoted to post rank, Jan. 8, 1812.
In the ensuing summer, Captain Acklom, who still retained the command of the Ranger, opened a communication with General Von Essen, governor of Riga, and was ordered to assist at the defence of that place, then threatened with a siege by the French and Prussian armies under Marshals Macdonald and Yorck[1]. During the winter of the same year, he commanded a small squadron left in the Baltic to co-operate with the Russian troops intended for the reduction of Dantzic. In consideration of his able services on that occasion, the Emperor Alexander was pleased to confer upon him the orders of St. Anne and St. Wladimer; the former of the second, and the latter of the third class. He gave up the Ranger on account of ill health, in Dec. 1813; since which he has not been employed.
Agent.– Messrs. Cooke, Halford, and Son.