Charles Richardson (Royal Navy officer)

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Sir

Charles Richardson

Vice-Admiral of the White
Commands held
Battles/wars
AwardsOrder of the Crescent
Naval General Service Medal with four clasps

Vlieter Incident in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland of 1799. He then sailed to Egypt in HMS Kent where he again went onshore, fighting in the battles of Abukir, Mandora, and Alexandria
in 1801.

Promoted to

Battle of Suriname in the following year for which he was given command of HMS Centaur and promoted to post-captain. Leaving Centaur in 1805, at the start of the next year he received command of HMS Caesar. In Caesar Richardson fought at the battles of Les Sables-d'Olonne and the Basque Roads in 1809. He joined the Walcheren Campaign later in the year, where he took command of a naval brigade operating ashore. In 1810 he was given command of HMS Semiramis in the English Channel; cooperating with HMS Diana he fought an action against two French warships and a small convoy off the Gironde that was complimented by Spencer Perceval, the prime minister
.

Leaving Semiramis in 1815, Richardson's next command came in 1819 as captain of

vice-admiral in 1847. He died of influenza at his home at Painsthorpe
in 1850.

Early life

Charles Richardson was probably born at Barker Hill in the parish of

Fort St. George, an area in which his son would serve in later years.[5][6]

Naval career

Early career

East Indies

Richardson joined the Royal Navy as a

aide de camp.[11][12] This did not happen because Cathcart died in the Bangka Strait en route in 1788.[9][10] Vestal then returned to England and underwent a refit in May 1789. On 29 August she was again sent far abroad, this time to India conveying Major-General William Medows to his new post as governor of Bombay.[8][10][13] Richardson remained on the East Indies Station after this and in April 1791 Strachan transferred to the command of the 36-gun frigate HMS Phoenix, taking Richardson with him.[9][14]

On 19 November Phoenix was sailing with the 36-gun frigate

merchant vessels to search them. The merchants were being protected by the French 42-gun frigate Résolue, and this ship opened fire on the British vessels during their attempts to search the ships.[Note 3] The British ships attacked the frigate and forced her to surrender after killing twenty-five of her crew in an engagement in which Phoenix herself had only six men killed. In the same year the Third Anglo-Mysore War began in India, and Richardson was subsequently given command of Phoenix's boats for service in the war. They served in a number of rivers in cooperation with Major-General Sir Robert Abercromby's army combating Tipu Sultan. Richardson was employed in this role for several months before he rejoined Phoenix.[9][16]

English Channel and the North Sea

HMS Royal George, in which Richardson fought his first fleet action

Phoenix returned to England in August 1793, Richardson having been promoted to midshipman and then

lieutenant.[16][20] Towards the beginning of 1794 Richardson heard of the plan to remove him, and in response to it he successfully demanded of West his discharge from the ship. He took a boat to another ship of the line in the fleet, the 100-gun HMS Royal George.[16][21] Royal George was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Hood, and Hood took Richardson on as a master's mate in that vessel after Strachan provided a good report on him to the admiral.[21] Richardson fought in Royal George at the action of 29 May 1794 and then at the subsequent Glorious First of June in both of which the ship was heavily engaged, having 92 casualties from a crew of 866.[16][22][23] On 4 August of the same year, he was promoted to lieutenant and sent to join the 28-gun frigate HMS Circe in Admiral Adam Duncan's North Sea Fleet.[9][24]

In May 1797, Richardson, now the

Peter Halkett, sat back-to-back on the quarterdeck armed with pistols and carbines and succeeded in keeping control of Circe, for which they were thanked by the Admiralty.[9][24][25][26] Until the mutiny was quashed Circe was one of only three vessels still serving in the North Sea Fleet, making signals to each other to pretend that they had more ships than they did.[27]

De Winter surrenders to Duncan, an event brought about by Richardson

Circe was subsequently employed in the squadron of Captain Henry Trollope to patrol off the Texel, and was then present at Duncan's Battle of Camperdown on 11 October, where she served as a repeating frigate.[Note 4] As the battle came to a close the Dutch admiral Jan Willem de Winter's flagship Vrijheid had been dismasted and was lying silent. Richardson saw this and volunteered to go over to the Dutch vessel in one of Circe's boats to ensure that de Winter did not use the lack of attention being given his damaged ship to escape to another vessel. Successfully capturing the admiral, Richardson took him to Duncan.[9][24]

Richardson's action impressed Duncan, who in January 1798 took him to serve on his flagship, the 74-gun ship of the line

Vlieter Incident on 30 August, in which Richardson saw some action. He was given command of a captured Dutch 68-gun ship of the line, and sailed her to England, afterwards rejoining Kent.[9][30][32]

Egypt

The Battle of Alexandria, at which Richardson served as aide de camp to Abercromby

In June 1800 Kent sailed to serve in the

Sir Sidney Smith in the naval brigade landed to assist the army, and he then fought at the Battle of Mandora on 13 March, where the brigade had eighty-five men incapacitated.[37]

After Richardson came to the attention of Abercromby in both Holland and now Egypt, the general appointed him as one of his aides de camp.

en flute (meaning that her main armament had been removed) 28-gun frigate HMS Alligator.[9] For his services in Egypt Richardson was awarded the gold medal second class of the Order of the Crescent by the Ottoman Empire.[43][42]

Commander

Richardson's rank as a commander was made permanent on 9 October 1802 and he continued in command of Alligator, serving during the

64th Regiment of Foot ashore; Richardson then went ashore himself and attacked two Dutch forts with a mixed force of sailors and soldiers.[47] Capturing them, he used their guns to fire down upon New Amsterdam.[48] For his efforts in this endeavour he was highly praised in the dispatches sent home after the battle. Richardson was rewarded by the commander-in-chief in the Leeward Islands, Commodore Sir Samuel Hood, with the acting command of his flagship, the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Centaur, on 6 July. His promotion to post-captain in consequence of this was confirmed on 27 September of the same year.[9][49]

Richardson soon after being promoted to post-captain

Post-captain

Strachan's squadron

Richardson returned to England with Hood in March 1805 and soon after left the ship, going on leave to Westmorland where he purchased a small cottage and thirty-six acres (fifteen hectares) of land and visited his relative, Sir Francis.[9][50][51] He was not unemployed for long and was given command of the 80-gun ship of the line HMS Caesar on 11 January 1806.[Note 5][9] Caesar was the flagship of the now-Rear-Admiral Strachan, and Richardson was his flag captain. Strachan's squadron was tasked with hunting a French squadron under Admiral Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez that had escaped from Brest.[9][45] They chased Willaumez to Brazil and the Leeward Islands but failed to catch him, and Richardson subsequently served in Caesar in the blockading force off Rochefort.[9][45][52] In February 1808, Strachan's squadron was sent to chase a different French force, this time of Rear-Admiral Zacharie Allemand, in the Mediterranean Sea. Again they were unable to engage their opponents, Allemand safely entering Toulon on 6 February.[45][53][54]

Walcheren Campaign

Caesar then became the flagship of Rear-Admiral

dyke and opened fire on the defensive positions around the town. That night Camvere offered to surrender and Richardson went with the army's Lieutenant-General Alexander Fraser to negotiate terms.[56][57][58][59] In his report on the action, Strachan gave the credit for the fall of the town to Richardson and his rocket initiative, the new weapon having scared the garrison into capitulation.[60]

Flushing is bombarded during the Walcheren Campaign

The 519 Dutch soldiers from Camvere were taken as

prisoners of war in the morning of 1 August, and the British force then moved on to attack the nearby fortification of Fort Rammekens [nl], which controlled the waters of the West Scheldt.[61][62][63] Richardson and his men were employed in the bombardment of that place until it surrendered on 3 August.[61] On 12 August the expedition attacked Flushing, the only Dutch strongpoint remaining on Walcheren, and Richardson had his men man a battery of six 24-pounder cannon.[Note 6] In the early morning of 14 August Richardson finished mounting the guns of his battery, 600 yards from the town, and in two hours destroyed all the Dutch cannon facing him. Flushing surrendered later in the day after a continued bombardment.[Note 7][66][67] His services during the expedition as a whole were highly appreciated by the army, and he received the thanks of the overall commander, Lieutenant-General Lord Chatham; the commander of the attack on Flushing, Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote; and the commander of the Royal Artillery present, Major-General John Mcleod.[56]

Frigate command

On 21 April 1810 he transferred to the command of the 36-gun frigate

gun brig Teazer (the ex-HMS Teazer), to board and capture her.[68] This raised the alarm to the shore batteries and the other vessel, the 16-gun brig Pluvier. Richardson then attacked her as she attempted to make sail to defend herself, and through excellent seamanship he managed to force Pluvier aground at Royan. Despite the French warship lying under the guns of a friendly battery, he then succeeded in burning the vessel where it lay with his newly returned small boats. The captain of Diana, William Ferris, congratulated Richardson on the action.[56][69] Both officers were in turn congratulated by the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, for the "peculiar neatness with which they...conducted the business".[69]

After this Richardson continued in a successful run of

Companion of the Order of the Bath; the Napoleonic Wars ended on 20 November.[9][56][73] He received his next command, the 60-gun frigate HMS Leander, on 29 July 1819.[9][56]

Post-war service and retirement

Leander was the flagship of Rear-Admiral

Lintin Island and killing two locals. The Chinese authorities reacted by demanding Richardson give up one his crew to be executed, and upon Richardson refusing this demand they suspended all trade between the two nations at Canton and removed all British merchants and East India Company ships.[56][75] As tensions rose soon after, a Chinese war junk made an aborted attempt to attack Topaze, and Richardson in response closed with Canton and anchored in the river, threatening Chinese trade. A Chinese mandarin was sent on board Topaze by his government soon afterwards, and through discussion with Richardson the situation was successfully resolved and tensions eased on 20 February 1822.[Note 8][71][77] Richardson sailed from China at the end of the month and rejoined Leander as her captain on 23 May. Because of the events at Canton Richardson's mental state had severely deteriorated. On 14 October, with his health described as being in a "very dangerous state" by biographer John Marshall, he was invalided home via the Cape of Good Hope, also suffering from a severe fever.[9][71][78]

This was Richardson's last active service in the Royal Navy, but he continued to be rewarded and promoted in retirement, becoming a

vice-admiral on 17 December 1847.[Note 9][56] In the same year he received the Naval General Service Medal with clasps for the Glorious First of June, Camperdown, Egypt, and the Basque Roads.[80] Richardson had a house built for himself in around 1815, Painsthorpe House in Yorkshire, living there in later life.[81][82][83] He died at Painsthorpe on 10 November 1850, aged eighty-three, from a severe bout of influenza, at the rank of vice-admiral of the white.[Note 10][79][84][85]

Notes and citations

Notes

  1. ^ This number indicates the established amount of cannon carried on the deck(s) of a warship. This relates to the main armament only, usually made up of long guns.[7]
  2. ^ Also recorded as joining as a midshipman.[8]
  3. ^ While both British frigates attacked Résolue, she only fired at Phoenix.[15]
  4. ^ Repeating frigates stationed out of the line of battle mirrored the flag signals sent out by their admirals so that messages could be more easily spread throughout the fleet.[28]
  5. ^ Also recorded as 2 January.[45]
  6. ^ This battery was known in the action as B Battery.[64]
  7. Royal Engineer present at Walcheren, criticised the reports sent home by Richardson; Pasley argued that Richardson had overemphasised his role and that apart from with his own battery he was uninvolved in the siege works around Flushing.[65]
  8. ^ Despite this, the Chinese continued to demand that a culprit be given up to them for the next seven years.[76]
  9. vice-admiral of the blue 17 December 1847, vice-admiral of the white 9 October 1849.[79]
  10. ^ Sources disagree on Richardson's age, with Urban stating it as eighty-three but Armstrong saying eighty-one.[84][85]

Citations

  1. ^ Atkinson (1849), p. 270.
  2. ^ "Vice Admiral C Richardson". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  3. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 138.
  4. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 142.
  5. ^ a b Armstrong (1855), p. 2.
  6. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 16.
  7. ^ Winfield (2008), p. 18.
  8. ^ a b Marshall (1825), p. 902.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae O'Byrne (1849), p. 974.
  10. ^ a b c d Marshall (1823d), p. 284.
  11. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 3.
  12. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 5.
  13. ^ Winfield (2007), p. 1109.
  14. ^ a b Winfield (2007), p. 974.
  15. ^ Marshall (1824), p. 324.
  16. ^ a b c d e Marshall (1825), p. 903.
  17. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 21.
  18. ^ Knight (2009).
  19. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 21–22.
  20. ^ Winfield (2007), p. 389.
  21. ^ a b Armstrong (1855), p. 22.
  22. ^ Marshall (1823a), p. 246.
  23. ^ James (1837), p. 387.
  24. ^ a b c Marshall (1825), pp. 903–904.
  25. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 57.
  26. ^ Dugan (1965), p. 256.
  27. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 54.
  28. ^ Lavery (1989), p. 262.
  29. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 85.
  30. ^ a b c d e f Marshall (1825), p. 904.
  31. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 91.
  32. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 92.
  33. ^ Owen (2009).
  34. ^ Marshall (1823c), p. 512.
  35. ^ Winfield (2008), p. 121.
  36. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 103.
  37. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 113.
  38. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 114.
  39. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 117–118.
  40. ^ Mackesy (2010), p. 129.
  41. ^ Mackesy (2010), p. 140.
  42. ^ a b Armstrong (1855), p. 121.
  43. ^ Glendining and Co. (1933), p. 20.
  44. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 127.
  45. ^ a b c d e f Marshall (1825), p. 905.
  46. ^ Winfield (2007), p. 1115.
  47. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 129–130.
  48. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 130–131.
  49. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 132.
  50. ^ Winfield (2008), p. 116.
  51. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 140–142.
  52. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 150.
  53. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 155.
  54. ^ James (1826), p. 6.
  55. ^ Marshall (1823b), p. 84.
  56. ^ a b c d e f g h i O'Byrne (1849), p. 975.
  57. ^ Marshall (1825), p. 906.
  58. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 194.
  59. ^ Howard (2012), p. 75.
  60. ^ Howard (2012), pp. 79–80.
  61. ^ a b Marshall (1825), p. 907.
  62. ^ Bond (1966), p. 115.
  63. ^ Bond (1966), p. 123.
  64. ^ Bond (1966), p. 193.
  65. ^ Harvey (1991), pp. 20–21.
  66. ^ Marshall (1825), pp. 907–908.
  67. ^ Bond (1966), p. 125.
  68. ^ a b c Marshall (1825), p. 908.
  69. ^ a b Marshall (1825), p. 909.
  70. ^ a b Winfield (2008), p. 398.
  71. ^ a b c d Marshall (1825), p. 910.
  72. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 201.
  73. ^ Watson (1992), p. 568.
  74. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 206.
  75. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 214.
  76. ^ Chen (2015), p. 202.
  77. ^ Armstrong (1855), pp. 217–219.
  78. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 220.
  79. ^ a b Syrett & DiNardo (1994), p. 378.
  80. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 225.
  81. ^ "Painsthorpe Hall". Historic England. 30 June 2001. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  82. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 202.
  83. ^ Armstrong (1855), p. 224.
  84. ^ a b Urban (1851), p. 93.
  85. ^ a b Armstrong (1855), p. 228.

References

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