Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/13

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He was in Lord Bridport's action of 23 June 1795, and in that of Sir John Warren on 12 Oct. 1798. He was commissioned as lieutenant on 7 Sept. 1799, and as commander on 16 May 1805. In April 1807 he was appointed to the Frolic, an 18-gun brig of 384 tons. He took her out to the West Indies, and spent five years there, being present at the recapture of Martinique on 24 Feb. 1809, and of Guadeloupe on 5 Feb. 1810.

He was made post captain on 12 Aug. 1812, and on his way home, in charge of convoy, he was attacked on 18 Oct. by the United States sloop Wasp of 434 tons. The Frolic had been much damaged in a gale, and after an action of fifty minutes, in which more than half her crew were killed or wounded, including her commander, she was boarded and taken. She was recovered, and the Wasp was taken by the Poictiers the same day. The court-martial which tried Whinyates for the loss of his ship acquitted him most honourably, as having done all that could be done (James, Naval History, vi. 158–62). In 1815 he was appointed to a corvette, but she was paid off at the peace. He was promoted rear-admiral on 1 Oct. 1846, and died unmarried at Cheltenham on 15 March 1857. He received the silver war medal with five clasps.

The fourth son of Major Thomas Whinyates, Captain George Babbington Whinyates (1783–1808), born on 31 Aug. 1783, entered the navy as first-class volunteer in 1797, and saw much active service, chiefly in the Mediterranean. In 1805, as lieutenant in the Spencer, 74 guns, he served under Nelson in the blockade of Toulon, the voyage to the West Indies, and the blockade of Cadiz; but his ship, which formed part of the inshore squadron, was sent to Gibraltar for provisions three days before Trafalgar. He was in Duckworth's action off St. Domingo on 6 Feb. 1806. In 1807 he commanded the Bergère sloop in the Mediterranean and the Channel. He died of consumption, brought on by hardship and exposure, on 5 Aug. 1808.

The fifth son, Major-general Frederick William Whinyates (1793–1881), born on 29 Aug. 1793, was commissioned as second lieutenant in the royal engineers on 14 Dec. 1811, and became lieutenant on 1 July 1812. He was present at the bombardment of Algiers on 27 Aug. 1816, being in command of a detachment of sappers and miners on the Impregnable. He has left a graphic account of the bombardment, and of a conference with the dey three days afterwards (Royal Engineers' Journal, xi. 26). He received the medal. He served with the army of occupation in France, and made reports on some of the French fortresses (now in the Royal Engineers' Institute, Chatham). He was commanding royal engineer with the field force in New Brunswick when the disputed territory was invaded by the state of Maine in 1839. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel on 9 Nov. 1846, and colonel on 16 Dec. 1854. He retired as major-general on 13 Jan. 1855, and died at Cheltenham on 9 Jan. 1881. He married, on 25 Jan. 1830, Sarah Marianne, second daughter of Charles Whalley of Stow-on-Wold, Gloucestershire, and had six children, four of whom became officers of the army.

The sixth son, General Francis Frankland Whinyates (1796–1887), born on 30 June 1796, entered the East India Company's service at the age of sixteen, and was gazetted as lieutenant-fireworker in the Madras artillery in July 1813. After serving in Ceylon and against the Pindáris, he took part in the Mahratta war of 1817–19 as a subaltern in A troop horse artillery, and received the medal with clasp for Maheidpoor (21 Dec. 1817). Promoted captain on 24 Oct. 1824, he served at the siege of Kittoor at the end of that year. He was principal commissary of ordnance from 1845 to 1850, and then had command of the horse artillery, and of the Madras artillery as brigadier. He left India in 1854, having ‘filled, with the highest credit to himself, every appointment and command connected with his corps’ (general order, 10 Feb. 1854). He became major-general on 28 Nov. 1854, lieutenant-general on 14 July 1867, and general on 21 Jan. 1872. He died without issue at Bath on 22 Jan. 1887. On 7 Aug. 1826 he had married Elizabeth, daughter of John Campbell of Ormidale, Argyllshire.

[Whinyates Family Records, by Major-General Frederick T. Whinyates, 1894, 3 vols. 4to, with portraits (twenty-five copies privately printed); Whinyates pedigree in Genealogist, new ser. viii. 52–5; Proceedings of Royal Artillery Institution, vol. v. pp. vii–ix; Colonel F. A. Whinyates's From Coruña to Sevastopol, 1884; Duncan's History of the Royal Artillery; Records of the Royal Horse Artillery; O'Byrne's Naval Biogr.; Royal Engineers' Journal, xi. 31; information furnished by Major-general F. T. Whinyates.]

E. M. L.

WHIPPLE, GEORGE MATHEWS (1842–1893), physicist, the son of George Whipple, a native of Devonshire, was born on 15 Sept. 1842 at Teddington, Middlesex, where his father was master of the public school. He was educated at the grammar school, Kingston-on-Thames, at Dr. Williams's private school at Richmond, Surrey,