Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
Frederick Paul Irby (18 April 1779 – 24 April 1844) was a British
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
officer and
Deputy Lord Lieutenant of
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
.
Birth
Frederick Irby was born on 18 April 1779, the second son of
Frederick Frederick may refer to:
People
* Frederick (given name), the name
Nobility
Anhalt-Harzgerode
*Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670)
Austria
* Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198
* Frederick ...
, 2nd
Baron Boston
Baron Boston, of Boston in the County of Lincoln, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1761 for the court official and former Member of Parliament, William Irby, 1st Baron Boston, Sir William Irby, 2nd Baronet. He had ea ...
and his wife Christian (née Methuen).
Early Royal Naval career
He entered the Royal Navy on 2 January 1791,
[ serving on the ]Home
A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...
and North America and West Indies Station
The North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from 1745 to 1956. The North American Station was separate from the Jamaica Station until 1830 when the t ...
s. As a midshipman
A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...
in HMS ''Montagu'' he was present at the Glorious First of June
The Glorious First of June (1 June 1794), also known as the Fourth Battle of Ushant, (known in France as the or ) was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic ...
in 1794. On 6 June 1797 he was promoted lieutenant and appointed to HMS ''Circe'', in which he was present at the Battle of Camperdown
The Battle of Camperdown (known in Dutch as the ''Zeeslag bij Kamperduin'') was a major naval action fought on 11 October 1797, between the British North Sea Fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan and a Batavian Navy (Dutch) fleet under Vice-Admiral ...
.[''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Volume 29, pp 327–328, Oxford University Press, 2004.] He was wrecked off the Texel
Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of De ...
in HMS ''Apollo'' on 7 January 1799. Promoted to commander
Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain.
...
on 22 April 1800, he became the captain of HMS ''Volcano'', a bomb vessel
A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons ( long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounte ...
, moving in 1801 to HMS ''Jalouse'' operating in the North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
.[
''Jalouse'', while under his command, was instrumental in saving when she was driven ashore on the coast of Holland. Irby's youngest brother, Charles Leonard Irby, was a midshipman on board ''Narcissus'', having joined her on 23 May.][Marshall (1832), Vol. 3, Part 2, p.1.]
Post captain
Promoted post-captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy.
The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:
* Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) ...
on 14 April 1802,[ he appears to have been placed on half pay. He married Emily Ives Drake,][ sister of Lady Boston (and hence his sister-in-law), on 1 December 1803. He was appointed in command of a unit of the ]Sea Fencibles
The Sea Fencibles were naval fencible (a shortening of ''defencible'') units established to provide a close-in line of defence and obstruct the operation of enemy shipping, principally during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
The ea ...
in the Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
District in 1805, and on 7 August 1807 his wife died giving birth to a son. He returned to sea to command HMS ''Amelia'' in December 1807, serving under Rear Admiral Stopford on the Home Station. On 24 February 1809 he took part in the Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne, which drove three large French frigates aground and destroyed them, gaining the special approval of the Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
.[ In 1811, in company with HMS ''Berwick'' and HMS ''Niobe'', he ]destroyed
Destroyed may refer to:
* ''Destroyed'' (Sloppy Seconds album), a 1989 album by Sloppy Seconds
* ''Destroyed'' (Moby album), a 2011 album by Moby
See also
* Destruction (disambiguation)
Destruction may refer to:
Concepts
* Destruktion, a ...
the French frigate ''Amazone'' near Barfleur
Barfleur () is a commune and fishing village in Manche, Normandy, northwestern France.
History
During the Middle Ages, Barfleur was one of the chief ports of embarkation for England.
* 1066: A large medallion fixed to a rock in the harbour ...
. He became the senior officer on the West Africa Squadron
The West Africa Squadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. Formed in 1808 after the British Parliame ...
later in 1811. The Action of 7 February 1813
During the night of 7 February 1813, two evenly matched frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy, '' Aréthuse'' and , engaged in a battle in the Atlantic Ocean at the Îles de Los, off Guinea. The action lasted four hours, causin ...
between ''Amelia'' and the French frigate ''Aréthuse'' ended his naval career.[ Captain Irby was seriously wounded][ and after 1813 he saw no further active service. The seventh report (1813) of the ]African Institution
The African Institution was founded in 1807 after British abolitionists succeeded in ending the slave trade based in the United Kingdom. The Institution was formed to succeed where the former Sierra Leone Company had failed—to create a viabl ...
expressed the organization's gratitude for Irby's efforts in reducing the slave trade.
Later life
He settled in Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, at Boyland Hall, near Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, and on 23 January 1816 he married his second wife, Frances Wright.[ They had three sons and four daughters, including Leonard Howard Lloyd Irby, a famous ]ornithologist
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
, and Paulina Irby
Paulina or Paullina (, ) was a name shared by three relatives of the Roman Emperor Hadrian: his mother, his elder sister and his niece.
Mother of Hadrian
Domitia Paulina or Paullina, Domitia Paulina Major or Paulina Major, (''Major'' Latin fo ...
, a revered hero of Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...
. In 1831 he was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB)[ and in 1837 promoted to ]rear admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
. He served as a Magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...
and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, and died on 24 April 1844[ aged 65.
]
Notes
References
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Attribution:
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Irby, Frederick Paul
1779 births
1844 deaths
Royal Navy rear admirals
People from Morningthorpe
Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars
Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
Companions of the Order of the Bath
Deputy Lieutenants of Norfolk
Officers of the West Africa Squadron
Younger sons of barons