2193590Royal Naval Biography — Curtis, LuciusJohn Marshall


SIR LUCIUS CURTIS, Bart.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1806.]

Youngest and only surviving son of the late Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, Bart. G.C.B., by Sarah, youngest daughter and co-heiress of Matthew Brady, of Gatcombe House, in the island of Portsea, Esq.[1]

This officer’s commission as a Commander bears date Nov. 16, 1804; he obtained the rank of Post-Captain Jan. 22, 1806; and was appointed to the Magicienne frigate about Feb. 1809. On the 29th Dec. in the same year, we find him stationed off the Isle of France, where he recaptured the Windham, a valuable ship belonging to the Hon.E.I.Company, which had been taken some months before by a French squadron, near Madagascar, and was then on her way to Port Louis.

Captain Curtis assisted at the reduction of Isle Bourbon, in July 1810, as will be seen by reference to the memoir of Sir Josias Rowley, Bart. The unavoidable destruction of the Magicienne, at the entrance of Port Sud-Est, Isle of France, has been noticed under the head of Captain Samuel Pym, C.B., at p. 718 of our second volume.

The subject of this brief sketch subsequently commanded the Iphigenia and Madagascar frigates. He was nominated a C.B. in 1815, and succeeded to the baronetcy, on the demise of his highly respected father, who died at Gatcombe House, Nov. 14, 1816[2].

Sir Lucius Curtis married Miss Greetham, daughter of the Deputy Judge Advocate of H.M. fleet: his only brother, Roger, died a Commander, R.N. July 12, 1802.



  1. A biographical memoir of Sir Roger Curtis is given in the Nav. Chron. Vol. 6, pp. 261–276.
  2. See Nav. Chron. Vol. 36, p. 440.