John Wainwright C.B. was an officer in the

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 ...

. In 1806, he became captain of the frigate HMS Chiffonne and, in 1809, was the

commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

of a squadron sent to suppress pirates in the Persian Gulf. After having led that joint-services expedition to ‘''burn the Pirates out of the Gulf''’, he was awarded a

scimitar A scimitar ( or ) is a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade associated with Middle Eastern, South Asian, or North African cultures. A European term, ''scimitar'' does not refer to one specific sword type, but an assortment of different ...

by a grateful emir and a gift ‘for plate’ by the Honourable East India Company. In recompense for the period without the opportunity to capture prizes, he was invited to escort on ''Chiffonne'' the 1810 Trade fleet from India to China, involving a lucrative ‘freight’ fee. In 1814, he captained Admiral Cochrane's flagship, , and saw action against the

Chesapeake Bay Flotilla The Chesapeake Bay Flotilla was a motley collection of barges and gunboats that the United States assembled under the command of Joshua Barney, an 1812 privateer captain, to stall British attacks in the Chesapeake Bay which came to be known as ...

Joshua Barney Joshua Barney (6 July 1759 – 1 December 1818) was an American Navy officer who served in the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War and as a captain in the French Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. He later achieved the rank o ...

in the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

., and subsequently landed some of the Marines who later helped burn Washington. In 1819, he became lieutenant governor of the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth but died within ten days. John Wainwright's father, also John, had been an RN Master's Mate at the siege of Quebec, his elder son, also John, was navigating lieutenant on HMS ''Blossom'' on the 1825–1828 Beechey expedition through the Bering Strait, and his younger son James Francis Ballard Wainwright C.B. was commissioning captain on .'John Wainwright and family', MG 24 F 125, Finding Aid No. 2333. National Archives of Canada: (Collected letters, transcript by request)

References

Companions of the Order of the Bath Royal Navy personnel of the War of 1812 1819 deaths {{UK-navy-bio-stub

See also

References