Aiskew Hollis

Vice-Admiral Aiskew Paffard Hollis (c. 1764 – 23 June 1844) was a Royal Navy officer of the early nineteenth century who is best known for his service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Born in the 1760s, Hollis entered the Navy in 1774 and served during the American Revolutionary War, seeing action at the Battle of Ushant and the French Revolutionary Wars in which he was badly wounded at the Glorious First of June. In 1801, as the captain of HMS Thames Hollis was heavily engaged at the Second Battle of Algeciras and in the Napoleonic Wars

American War of Independence, first in the West Indies and later in the English Channel in a succession of frigates. By 1778 he was serving in HMS Valiant, which was engaged in the Battle of Ushant under Admiral Augustus Keppel.^[1] He was promoted to lieutenant in 1781 and remained in the Navy following the end of the war, serving in a number of ships before, in 1793, joining HMS Queen at the request of Rear-Admiral Alan Gardner. In Queen, Hollis served in the Channel Fleet during the early years of the war and was badly wounded in the head by flying splinters at the Glorious First of June in 1794, during which Queen was heavily engaged. He also saw action the following year at the Battle of Groix.^[2]

Algeciras Campaign, firing on the French ship of the line Formidable during the Second Battle of Algeciras.^[2]

HMS Mermaid, sailing to the West Indies in 1804, and was anchored at Havana when war broke out between Britain and Spain. To avoid his ship being seized, Hollis was forced to warp out of the harbour at night just before the Spanish attacked his ship. Mermaid was subsequently attached to the North American command, blockading French forces anchored in Chesapeake Bay until 1807, when the ship was sent back to Britain for urgent repairs.^[1] Hollis was transferred to HMS Standard and joined the Baltic Fleet, where he commanded the squadron that captured the Danish fortress at Anholt. He remained in the Baltic Sea until 1811, when he was transferred to HMS Achille in which he served with the Mediterranean Fleet, especially in the Adriatic Sea.^[2]

King George IV during a visit to the dockyard.^[1] He did not hold an active commission after 1820, but remained in service and rose to the rank of vice-admiral, retiring to his estate at Highfield, Southampton and dying there aged 80 in June 1844.^[2]