“I beg leave to bear most ample testimony to his forward gallantry on all occasions. From the time of my going to Rangoon till the final treaty of peace at Yandaboo, he was with me, and by his steady good conduct tended very considerably to procure for the naval service those high encomiums that have been bestowed on it, and to myself individually he has been of the greatest service.”
On the night previous to his arrival at Spithead, the subject of this memoir nearly lost his life in attempting to save a shipmate from a watery grave. The Alligator was paid off at Plymouth on the 3d Jan. 1827, since which Commander Keele has made many applications for employment, but without success.
THOMAS FRASER, Esq.
[Commander.]
Third and youngest son of the late Vice Admiral Alexander Fraser, Equerry to H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, by Helen, eldest daughter of John Bruce, Esq., Advocate, and Collector of the Customs in Shetland[1].
We first find this officer serving as admiralty midshipman on board the Leander 60, Captain Edward Chetham, at the battle of Algiers, in Aug. 1816. His promotion to the rank of lieutenant took place on the 16th of the following month, but his commission appears to have been dated back to the 5th, in order to give him precedence of others who did not happen to be so highly connected. He subsequently served under Captain William Ramsden, in the Scout sloop, on the Mediterranean station; and, in Mar. 1823, was appointed to the Larne 20, Captain Frederick Marryat, which ship he commissioned at Portsmouth on the 1st April. Previous to his sailing for the East Indies, he assisted in taking round to the Downs the Ramillies 74, and bringing back the Severn frigate. The following is au outline of his services during the Burmese war.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part II. p. 458, et seq.; and the Addenda, &c., at the end of this volume.
