LE FEUVRE. (Retired Commander, 1839. f-p., 14; h-p., 34.)
John Le Feuvre was born 16 April, 1786.
This officer (whose name had been borne, from 24 April, 1794, to 3 Dec. 1795, on the books of the Royal William, flag-ship at Portsmouth of Sir Peter Parker) embarked, 12 July, 1799, as a Volunteer, on board La Juste 80, Capt. Sir Henry Trollope; and in July of the following year, being then in the Andromeda 32, Capt. Henry Inman, witnessed the capture of the French frigate La Désiree; to which, on her being soon afterwards added to the British Navy, he was transferred, as Midshipman, with Capt. Inman, under whom he took a warm part, 2 April following, in the action off Copenhagen. Continuing to serve in La Désiree, with Capts. Rich. Dacres, Chas. Bayne Hodgson Ross, and Henry Whitby, until 1804, Mr. Le Feuvre (besides assisting in the ship’s barge at the capture, on 21 Feb. in the latter year, of a French armed row-boat) was present, in 1803, at the blockade of Cape Francois, the reduction of Port Dauphin, where two forts and a 28-gun ship, La Sagesse, were taken from the enemy, and the capture of the French squadron with the remains of General Rochambeau’s army on board from Cape François. Previously to the surrender of La Sagesse he appears to have accompanied the First-Lieutenant on board that vessel in the capacity of interpreter. In July, 1804, we find him transferred to the Theseus 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Jas. Rich. Dacres; and, in the following Sept., present in a violent hurricane in which the latter ship lost her three lower masts and tiller, sprang her bowsprit, had all her boats stove or washed away, parted with 13 of her guns, and sprang so bad a leak that the officers even were obliged to work at the pumps. On 7 Oct. 1805, being then with Admiral Dacres in the Hercule 74, Mr. Le Feuvre was appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the Pitt schooner, Lieut.-Commander Michael Fitton; from which vessel, however, he removed as Acting-Lieutenant, on 30 of the same month, to the Veteran 64, Capt. Andw. Fitzherbert Evans. Being confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant by commission dated 31 March, 1806, he was subsequently appointed, in that capacity – 13 June, 1806, to the Fisgard 36, Capt. Sir Wm. Bolton, still in the West Indies, where, immediately prior to the brilliant capture of Curaçoa, he was sent for (having been at the island before) by Capt. Brisbane, and interrogated as to the strength of Fort Amsterdam – 10 Dec. 1807 (after rather more than seven months’ half-pay), to the Ranger 18, Capt. Geo. Acklom, under whom he assisted at the reduction of the Island of Anholdt in May, 1809 – 30 Nov. 1809 and 14 May, 1810, to the Clio 10, Capt. Thos. Folliott Baugh, and Adamant 50, flagship of Rear-Admirals Sir Edm. Nagle and Wm. Albany Otway, both on the Leith station – and, lastly, 6 July, 1813, to the Severn 40, Capt. Joseph Nourse, which frigate he left, after having made a voyage from Deptford to Portsmouth, in the following Nov. He accepted his present rank, 15 July, 1839.
LEGARD, K.T.S. (Commander, 1838.)
James Anlaby Legard passed his examination in 1825; and for his services at the battle of Navarin was made Lieutenant, 22 Oct. 1827, into the Brisk 10, Capt. Thos. Smith. His succeeding appointments were – 2 March, 1829, to the Infernal bomb, Capts. Popham and Orlando Geo. Sutton Gunning, on the Mediterranean station – 30 Aug. 1832 (after two years of half-pay) to the Aetna 6, Capt. Edw. Belcher, employed in the river Douro for the protection of British property during the civil war – 14 May, 1833, as Senior, to the Volage 28, Capts. Geo. Bohun Martin and Peter Richards, in which ship, with the exception of a short time passed at the close of 1835 in the Caledonia 120, under the flag of Sir Josias Rowley, he served in the Mediterranean for three years and a half – and, 18 Jan. 1837, in a similar capacity, again to the Caledonia. He was paid off in the following summer; and on 28 June, 1838, was advanced to his present rank. He has since been on half-pay. Commander Legard, in 1844, obtained the royal permission to accept and wear the Insignia of a K.T.S.
LE GEYT, C.B. (Rear-Admiral, 1846, f-p., 21; h-p., 35.)
George Le Geyt, born 20 March, 1777, at Canterbury, co. Kent, is son of the late Robt. Le Geyt, Esq., of that place (first-cousin of the late Vice-Admiral d’Auvergne, Prince de Bouillon), by Jane, daughter of the Rev. Wm. Byrch, Rector of St. Mary’s, Dover, and of Mongham, also in co. Kent. His grandfather and great-grand-uncle both held the office of Chief Civil Magistrate of the Royal Court and President of the States of Jersey.
This officer entered the Navy, in March, 1791, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Colossus 74, Capt. Henry Harvey, lying at Spithead. Being discharged in the following Aug., he next, in March, 1792, joined the Hussar 28, Capt. Rupert George, and sailed for the Halifax station, where he assisted at the capture of the two privateers Républicain and Jou-jou. On the former of those vessels being brought into the service, named the Prince Edward, and the command given to Lieut. John G. Saville, we find Mr. Le Geyt appointed to her as Master’s Mate, and in that capacity witnessing, 17 May, 1795, the capture, by a force under the orders of Capt. Hon. Alex. Cochrane, of two French ships. La Prévoyante of 24, and La Raison of 18 guns. After their surrender, he went on board La Prévoyante, and aided in fitting her with jurymasts. That frigate being subsequently added to the British Navy, Mr. Le Geyt continued in her under the command of Capt. John Poo Beresford, until the spring of 1796, and was twice sent into port in charge of detained vessels. He then removed to the Resolution 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Geo. Murray, under whom he was further present, 28 Aug. 1796, at the capture of the French frigate Elisabeth, On 5 of the following Nov. Mr. Le Geyt was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Rover 16, Capt. Geo. Irvine, in which vessel (being confirmed to her 27 Jan. 1797) he remained, assisting intermediately at the taking of Le Jean Bart, a noted privateer, until wrecked in a fog in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Aug. 1798. On his return, immediately afterwards, to England in the Resolution, Capt. Wm. Lechmere, our officer, who had then been for upwards of six years on the Halifax station, was at once, at the request of Capt. John Holloway, of the St. George 98, appointed to that ship. Removing as Second-Lieutenant, in March, 1799, to the Tamar, of 46 guns and 281 men, Capt. Thos. Western, he proceeded soon with the flag of Lord Hugh Seymour, to the West Indies, where, besides contributing to the reduction of Surinam, he served at the capture, among numerous other vessels, of La Républicaine French national corvette, of 32 guns and 175 men (after a close action of about 10 minutes, a loss to the enemy of 9 killed and 12 wounded, and to the British of only 2 wounded); also of Le Général Massena, ship privateer, of 16 guns (pierced for 18) and 150 men 5 and of a schooner privateer of 10 guns and 50 men. Towards the close of 1801 (he had been the last year and a half First-Lieutenant of the Tamar) Mr. Le Geyt joined the Leviathan 74, bearing the flag at Jamaica of Sir John Thos. Duckworth, who promoted him, 28 May, 1803, to the command of the Stork 18 – an act which the Admiralty approved. While in that sloop, in which he continued upwards of nine years, Capt. Le Geyt effected the capture, 24 Feb. 1804, of the French national schooner Coquette of 2 guns and 95 men after a chase of 265 miles,[1] and, on 30 of the ensuing month, of L’Hirondelle privateer, of 3 guns and 44 men. In Aug. 1806 he was sent with a small squadron, consisting, besides his own vessel, of the Supérieure sloop, and Flying-Fish and Pike schooners, to attack a number of small vessels lo-
- ↑ Vide Gaz 1804, p. 518.
