A Naval Biographical Dictionary/George, George

1721144A Naval Biographical Dictionary — George, GeorgeWilliam Richard O'Byrne

GEORGE. (Retired Commander, 1844. f-p., 21; h-p., 33.)

George George entered the Navy, 3 Sept. 1793, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Glory 98, Capt. Fras. Pender, bearing the broad pendant in the Channel of Hon. Geo. Murray, whom he accompanied, the year following, to North America, as Midshipman of the Resolution 74. From that ship, after serving for some time also on board the Cleopatra 32, Capts. Chas. Vinicombe Penrose and Chas. Rowley, he was promoted to an Acting-Lieutenancy, in May, 1797, in the Lynx 16, Capt. Robt. Hall; under whom he assisted at the capture, 27 June, 1798, after a running fight of several hours, of Le Mentor privateer of 14 guns and 79 men. On leaving the Lynx, which vessel he had had the good fortune to preserve from destruction during a violent hurricane, Mr. George was confirmed, by commission dated 26 Nov. 1799, into the Boston 32, Capt. John Erskine Douglas. While in command, during the following year, of a boat belonging to that frigate, he succeeded in capturing off St. Domingo, both on the same day, a French schooner of 6 guns, and a Dutch sloop mounting 4 swivels. He afterwards, when on his passage home, towards the close of 1802, in the Chichester troop-ship, Capt. Joseph Spear, again proved instrumental, through great presence of mind, in saving that vessel from being lost on the rocks near the Isle of Wight. After assisting, as First-Lieutenant of the same ship, at the reduction, in June, 1803, of the islands of Tobago and Ste. Lucie, Mr. George was successively appointed – 5 July, 1804, as Senior, to the Albacore sloop, Capt. Major Jacob Henniker, on the Guernsey station – in the course of 1806, to the Ocean, Queen, and Prince 98’s, Capts. Fras. Pender and Wm. Lechmere – and, 25 Oct. 1808, to the command of a Signal Station. On 8 Oct. 1804, while in the Albacore, Mr. George induced, and obtained the high approbation of his Captain for the very animated part he bore in, an attack which led to the destruction of five armed luggers, under a heavy fire from the enemy’s battery and vessels near Grosnez de Flamanville.[1] He subsequently fitted out the Ocean at Spithead, as her First-Lieutenant, and, for the activity he displayed on that occasion, received the thanks of the Port-Admiial; Six Geo. Montagu. The subject of this memoir, who has been on half-pay since 1816, assumed the rank of Retired-Commander on the Senior List 31 May, 1844.


  1. Vide Gaz. 1804, p. 1284.