WILLIAM PICKING, Esq.
[Commander.]
Entered the royal navy in 1799; obtained his first commission on the 10th Oct. 1807; was senior lieutenant of the Redpole sloop, Captain Alexander Fraser, at the close of the war with France, in 1814; and subsequently served in the Southampton 50, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral (afterwards Sir William C.) Fahie, commander-in-chief at the Leeward Islands, and on the Halifax station. He was advanced to his present rank on the 18th Sept. 1828, and appointed to the Asia 84, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral (now Sir William; Parker, on the Lisbon station, Aug. 15th, 1832. He shortly afterwards had a narrow escape, a spent ball having grazed his shoulder whilst he was on shore, viewing an attack made by the Miguelites upon Don Pedro’s lines near Oporto. At the same moment, Mr. Vidal, purser of the Asia, then in company, received a musket-ball in the body. He was paid off, on his return from the river Tagus, in the summer of 1834.