396
GILCHRIST—GILES.
seas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and for the establishment of the colony of Newfoundland. This officer entered the Navy, 26 Sept. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Fisgard, of 46 guns and 281 men, Capt. Thos. Byam Martin; under whom he assisted in taking, 22 Oct. 1800, La Vénus French frigate of 32 guns, was present at the capture of a large number of privateers, and saw much boat service. The Fisgard being paid off at the peace, Mr. Gilbert, on the renewal of hostilities, became successively attached, as Midshipman, to the Milbrook schooner, Lieut.-Commander M. A. N. De Starck, and, with the late Sir Thos. Louis, to the Conqueror 74, Leopard 50, and Canopus 80. While in the Leopard he served in a fire-boat at the bombardment of the Boulogne flotilla in 1804; and on his removal to the Canopus, he accompanied Lord Nelson to the West Indies in his celebrated pursuit of the combined fleets in 1805, took part in the action off San Domingo 6 Feb. 1806, was present, as Acting-Lieutenant, at the capture of Le Président French frigate, landed and assisted, after passing the Dardanells, in dislodging some Turks from the island of Prota, 27 Feb. 1807, and then attended the expedition to Egypt, where he witnessed the unsuccessful attack on Rosetta. Being confirmed in the Canopus, by commission dated 29 Sept. 1808, Mr. Gilbert, after serving for some months under the flag of the present Sir Geo. Martin, successively joined – 5 Dec. 1809, and 13 Aug. 1810, as Senior Lieutenant, the Apelles and Tyrian sloops, Capts. Thos. Oliver and Henry Davies, on the Home station – 4 Jan. 1811, the Argo 44, Capt. Fred. Warren – 1 May, 1811, the Revenge 74, bearing the flag of Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge, under whom he served at the defence of Cadiz, assisted in cutting out an American vessel from beneath a heavy battery, and was constantly under fire – 6 Jan. 1813, and 5 July, 1815, again as First, the Doris 36 and Grampus 50, Capts. Robt. O’Brien and Fras. Augustus Collier, on the East India station – 4 July, 1816, as a Volunteer, the Glasgow 40, Capt. Hon. Ahthony Maitland; during his attachment to which ship he received a splinter-wound across his chest while in command of her fire-boat at the battle of Algiers, 27 Aug. 1816 – 21 July, 1817, to the command of a Revenue-cruizer – and, 8 Sept. 1817, as Senior, to his former ship, the Glasgow, Capt. Hon. A. Maitland, on the Mediterranean station. Attaining his present rank 26 Dec. 1822, he subsequently, on 8 Dec. l827, and 30 Oct. 1828, assumed command of the Infernal bomb and Zebra 18. On 4 Aug. 1841, he joined the Coast Guard; and, since 9 Oct. 1846, he has been in command of the Andromeda store-ship.
Commander Gifford [errata 1] married, in 1822, Mary, daughter of J. Simpson, Esq., and niece of the late wealthy Mr. Arkwright, by whom he has issue four children. Agents – Messrs. Hallett and Robinson.
GILCHRIST. (Retired Commander, 1843. f-p., 26; h-p., 37.)
William Gilchrist was born 5 May, 1775. His father was also in the Service.
This officer entered the Nayy, 2 May, 1784, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Flirt 14, Capts. Wm. Luke and Percy Brett, on the Home station, where, until 1791, he continued to serve, in the same vessel, and in the Fame 74 and Impregnable 98, flag-ships of Rear-Admiral Philip Cosby. He re-embarked, 30 June, 1793, on board the Sceptre 64, Capts. Jas. Rich. Dacres, Wm. Essington, Thos. Alexander, and Valentine Edwards; under the two first of whom he witnessed the attack on Cape Tiburon and Port au Prince, St. Domingo, in 1794, and the capture of the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay, 17 Aug. 1796. While detached, on one occasion, in a captured Indiaman, he had the misfortune to be wrecked; on another, he discovered a conspiracy which but for him would have resulted in the surrender to the French of a British Squadron of seven sail by their own crews; and for his subsequent exertions in securing the Sceptre’s guns during a hurricane, he was received, 16 Jan. 1798, on board the Tremendous 74, bearing the flag at the Cape of Rear-Admiral Thos. Pringle – by whose successor. Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian, he was appointed, as a reward for his presence of mind in saving that ship from being driven on a bed of rocks, to a Lieutenancy, 1 Aug. following, in thd Hope sloop, Capt. Augustus Brine. When next in L’Oiseau 36, Capt. Sam. Hood Linzee, to which ship he was confirmed by commission dated 22 June, 1799, Lieut. Gilchrist, in command of three boats, cut out a privateer and a laden brig from under a battery at St. Denis, Bourbon; and on another occasion, in only a six-oared cutter, he took two boats with 12 men under a desperate fire from numerous batteries and field-pieces in a harbour of the Isle of France. In the course of the same year he also bore part in an engagement of several hours with two French frigates; some time after the close of which he contrived by his owa personal exertions to prevent L’Oiseau, whose masts and rigging had been greatly damaged, from being lost on the Bellair’s Rock. His subsequent appointments were, on the East India and Home stations, frequently as First-Lieutenant, to the Rattlesnake 16, Capt. Roger Curtis, Diomede 50, Capt. Sam. Stottley, Lancaster 64, bearing the flag of Sir Roger Curtis, La Concorde 36, Capts. John Wood and John Cramer, Weymouth 36, Capt. John Draper, to the command of the El Corso receiving-ship, Maida 74, Capt. S. H. Linzee, and to the command of the Irresistible prison-ship, and Utile 16 – of these ships he had the good fortune of also preserving from destruction the Rattlesnake, Concorde, and Weymouth, as he likewise did, on her passage home, the Kron Prindtz Frederick, one of the Danish 74’s taken in 1807 at Copenhagen, at the siege of which place he had assisted as First of the Maida. Having been on half-pay since 1813, he at length became a Retired Commander on the Junior List, 26 Nov. 1830, from which he was promoted to the Senior, 1 Aug. 1843.
Commander Gilchrist, when in the Impregnable, fell from the mizen-top, fractured his skuU, tore the calf of his left leg, and greatly injured his arm; and in consideration of his sufferings he obtained a pension from the chest of Chatham. The injuries he experienced on other occasions have been numerous and extreme.
GILES. (Lieutenant 1841.)
Henry John Giles entered the Navy 2 April, 1824; served as Midshipman of the Genoa 74, Capt. Walter Bathurst, at the battle of Navarin, 20 Oct. 1827; passed his examination 2 Feb. 1831; served as Mate, latterly, of the Caledonia 120, flag-ship at Plymouth of Sir Graham Moore; and obtained his commission 14 Dec. 1841. He was reappointed, 18 Oct. 1842, to the Caledonia 120, then flag-ship of Sir David Milne. He has not been employed since 1844.
He married, 14 March, 1844, Mary, only daughter of the late Mr. T. Webb, of Darley, near Liskeard, Cornwall.
GILES. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 10; h-p.,)
William Giles was born 22 Sept. 1787. This officer entered the Navy, 23 May, 1805, as Midshipman, On board the Princess Royal 98, Capt. Robt. Carthew Reynolds; on removing from which ship to the Inflexible 64, Capt. Joshua Rowley Watson, he attended the expedition to Copenhagen in Aug. 1807, served on shore with the naval brigade throughout the whole of the siege, and subsequently assisted in fitting out the Danish shipping. After serving for some months as Master’s Mate, on the Home station, of the Vulture 18 and Hope 10, both commanded by Capt. Joseph Pearce, he rejoined Capt. Watson on board the Alfred 74, in time to unite in the operations of 1809 against the island of Walcheren, where he commanded a magazine-boat. During his continuance in the Alfred, Mr. Giles further served with the
