Royal Naval Biography/Crofton, George Alfred
HON. GEORGE ALFRED CROFTON.
[Post-Captain of 1812.]
Third son of the late Sir Edward Crofton, Bart, by Anne, daughter and sole heiress of Thomas Croker, of Backweston, co. Kildare, Esq. which lady was created an Irish baroness, in her own right, Dec. 1, 1707.
This officer’s first commission bears date Oct. 10, 1804. On the 13th June, 1805, being then a lieutenant of the Cambrian frigate, Captain J. Poo Beresford, on the Halifax station, he conducted himself with great gallantry in the command of that ship’s barge at the capture of the Spanish privateer schooner Maria, of 14 guns and 60 men; on this occasion the British had 2 men killed and 2 wounded. At the latter end of June, 1806, he was ordered to act as commander of l’Observateur brig, recently captured by the Tartar frigate; but his actual promotion to that rank did not take place till Feb. 9, 1808, at which period he was appointed to the Goree sloop, on the Leeward Islands’ station. The handsome manner in which he consulted the feelings of a brother officer, by relinquishing his right to command that vessel, has been stated at p. 473 of Suppl. Part I. On the 11th Oct. 1810, while commanding the Fawn sloop, he captured le Temeraire French schooner privateer, of 10 guns and 35 men.
Captain Crofton was made post, Feb. 1, 1812. His subsequent appointments were, Aug. 3, 1813, to the Dictator troop-ship; Feb. 4, 1815, to the Narcissus frigate; and July 24, 1826, to the Dryad 42, now on the Mediterranean station.
This officer’s eldest surviving brother is in holy orders, and the heir presumptive to his nephew, Edward Lord Crofton. Another brother, a captain in the Coldstream regiment of foot-guards, was killed before Bayonne, April 14, 1814.