ry: and another, Arthur, a captain in the Hon.E.I.C. service, on the Madras establishment. His brother Frederick, a midshipman of the Thetis frigate, died in the West Indies, of yellow fever, in 1809.
JAMES ASKEY, Esq.
[Commander.]
Was born in 1775; and first went to sea, in the merchant service, in 1786. During the Russian armament, in 1791, he entered the royal navy, as a foremast lad, on board the Rattlesnake sloop, Captain Joseph Sydney Yorke; under whom he continued to serve, in that vessel, the Circe 28 Stag 32, Jason 36, and Canada 74, until May 1802; at which period he had been doing duty on the quarter-deck as midshipman and master’s-mate, for about twelve months. During the peace of Amiens, he commanded a merchant-vessel; and on the renewal of hostilities, in 1803, rejoined Captain Yorke then commanding the Prince George 98. In Sept. 1804, he passed his examination; and on the 15th July, 1806, after acting as lieutenant of two line-of-battle ships (the Polyphemus and Illustrious) was promoted from the Hibernia 110, bearing the flag of Earl St. Vincent, into the Donegal 74, Captain Pulteney Malcolm, under whom we find him serving for a period of four years. From documents before us, it appears that he was beach-master at the debarkation of the armies under Sir Arthur Wellesley (in Mondego bay) and Sir John Moore (at the back of Vimiera) in 1808; that on the former occasion, he superintended the landing of the artillery and ordnance stores; and that, on the latter, he saved four soldiers from a watery grave, at the hazard of his own life. He also commanded the larboard division of boats, sent from the fleet under Lord Gambler, to protect the fire-vessels in Aix roads, on the memorable night of April 11th, 1809.
Lieutenant Askey’s subsequent appointments were, in 1810, to the command of the hired cutter Active, on the Downs station, and Charger mortar brig, employed in the defence of Cadiz, where he continued until the raising of the siege. He obtained the rank of commander on the 15th June, 1814;
