A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wilson, Harry
WILSON. (Lieut., 1811. f-p., 11; h-p., 32.)
Harry Wilson was born 26 Nov. 1789.
This officer entered the Navy, 13 May, 1804, as Midshipman, on board the Elephant 74, Capt. Geo. Dundas, stationed in the West Indies, where he removed, in 1805, to the Circe 32, Capt. Jonas Rose, and became Master’s Mate, in 1806, of the Alligator 28, Capt. Robt. Campbell. In 1804 he assisted in the boats of the Elephant at the cutting-out of a privateer from the neighbourhood of Jacmel, St. Domingo. From 1807 until promoted by the Admiralty 26 April, 1811, he served as Master’s Mate and Acting-Lieutenant in the Alfred and Implacable 74’s, Capts. John Bligh, John Hayes, and Joshua Rowley Watson. He commanded a launch in the attack upon Copenhagen in 1807; in 1808 he aided in bringing off the wounded after the battle of Vimiera; he was employed, too, in blockading the Russian fleet in the Tagus; and he commanded a party of seamen on shore, we are told, at the reduction of Martinique and Guadeloupe. He cooperated, in charge of a gun-boat, in the defence of Cadiz, and was engaged while there in keeping up a communication with the army at Barrosa. In the execution of these services he received a musketball in the thigh. His last appointments were, 19 Oct. 1811, 27 Jan. 1814 (and, after some months of half-pay, occasioned by ill health), 4 July, 1815, to the Defiance 74, Capt. Rich. Raggett, Griffon brig, Capt. Geo. Barne Trollope, and Berwick 74, Capt. Edw. Brace. In an affair, in the Defiance, with some Danish gun-boats in the Little Belt, he was for a time deprived, by an explosion, of the sight of both eyes. While in the Berwick, of which ship he was Senior Lieutenant, he commanded a gun-boat at Flushing, Ter Ver, and Fort Lillo; and a division of Sicilian gun-boats at Gaeta.