MATTHEW LIDDON, Esq.
[Commander.]
Served as midshipman on board the Thames frigate, commanded by the present Lord Radstock, on the Mediterranean station, and was employed in her boats at the capture and destruction of seven heavy gun-vessels, five armed scampavias, &c., and thirty-one sail of transports, laden with stores and provisions for Murat’s army at Scylla, July 25th, 1810[1]. He was made a lieutenant on the 3d May 1811; and appointed to the Maidstone frigate, Captain George Burdett, Nov. 6th following. During the war between Great Britain and the United States, he appears to have assisted in capturing several of the enemy’s armed vessels, in the Bay of Fundy and at the mouth of the Rappahannock river[2]. Towards the close of that contest, he exchanged from the Maidstone, then commanded by Captain William Skipsey, into la Hogue 74, Captain the Hon. Thomas Bladen Capel, on the Halifax station; and in Jan. 1819, he was appointed to the command of the Griper brig, selected by his friend Lieutenant (now Sir William Edward) Parry, to accompany him in an expedition to the Arctic Seas, the proceedings and result of which have been fully detailed in Suppl. Part IV. pp. 318–353. He paid off the Griper, at Deptford, Dec. 2l8t, 1820; obtained the rank of commander on the 8th Nov. 1821; and married, in 1827, Ann, only daughter of the late Samuel Bilke, Esq. of Stamford Street, Blackfriars.