Royal Naval Biography/Fair, Robert
ROBERT FAIR, Esq.
Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order.
[Commander.]
This officer is a native of county Cork. We first find him serving as master of the Amethyst frigate. Captain (afterwards Sir Michael) Seymour, by whom he was most highly spoken of for his conduct at the capture of the French 44-gun frigates Thetis and Niemen, Nov. 10th, 1808, and April 6th, 1809[1]. He obtained the rank of lieutenant on the 1st July in the latter year; and was appointed to the command of the Locust gun-brig, Nov. 23d, 1811. In the following month, he drove on shore, near Calais, a French national brig, which, from the violence of the surf, was beaten to pieces.
The Locust was paid off in July 1814, and Lieutenant Fair appointed to the Tay 21, Captain William Robilliard, on the 5th Sept following. He subsequently commanded the Griper revenue cruiser; received a handsome sword from Lloyd’s for his humane and meritorious conduct on some particular occasion; and was promoted to his present rank from the Royal Sovereign yacht, Sept. 6th, 1823. The Guelphic order was conferred upon him in 1834.