A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Snellgrove, Henry

1950330A Naval Biographical Dictionary — Snellgrove, HenryWilliam Richard O'Byrne

SNELLGROVE. (Lieutenant, 1811. f-p., 12; h-p., 37.)

Henry Snellgrove was born 1 Sept. 1782, and died in 1848.

This officer (who had been wrecked in 1798 in the Mary Anne transport, and had co-operated in the Earl Howe Indiaman in the attack upon Seringapatam) entered the Navy, 8 July, 1803, as A.B., on board the Colossus 74, Capts. Geo. Martin, Michael Seymour, and Jas. Nicoll Morris. In the course of the following month he attained the rating of Midshipman; and he continued in the Colossus, cruizing off the coasts of France, Spain, and Portugal, until after the battle of Trafalgar. In consequence of several injuries he there sustained,[1] he was presented with a gratuity from the Patriotic Fund. From Dec. 1805 until May, 1809, he served, nearly the whole time in the West Indies, in the Canada 74, Capt. John Harvey, and Guerrière 40, Capt. Alex. Skene. He then joined the Martin sloop, Capt. John Evans, at Bermuda; and on 18 of the following July, having just completed his time, he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Eurydice 24, Capt. Jas. Bradshaw. From that vessel, which had been stationed in the West Indies and North America, he was superseded 20 April, 1811. He was officially promoted 1 Aug. in the same year; and was lastly, from 20 March, 1812, until 12 June, 1815, employed in the Mediterranean, and again off the coast of America in the Brune 38, armée en flûte, Capts. John Thompson and Wm. Stanhope Badcock (now Lovell). While in that ship he was lent, at first, to the Cadiz flotilla; and was present afterwards at the sieges of the Col de Balaguer and Tarragona, the destruction of Commodore Barney’s flotilla up the Patuxent, the capture of Washington, and the attack upon Baltimore. From constant exposure in boats his health suffered very materially.


  1. Vide Gaz. 1805, p. 1484.