Captain Sir Robert Mends (c. 1767 – 4 September 1823) was a prominent 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 of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, who lost an arm in the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, caught in an explosion at the Battle of Groix in 1795 and wounded again at the

action of 6 April 1809 The action of 6 April 1809 was a small naval battle fought between the French frigate and several British frigates, principally , as part of the blockade of Brest, France, during the Napoleonic Wars. During the Wars, a central part of British ...

. In 1815 he was made a Spanish knight for his services in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

and was awarded a pension of £300 a year from the British government. He remained in service at the end of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

and in 1821 was made commodore on the West African station, on which he died in 1823.

Life

Robert Mends was born into a prominent

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

family in the late 1760s, probably 1767. He joined the

in 1779, serving on HMS ''Culloden'' under Captain George Balfour during the

. Mends was almost instantly in action, ''Culloden'' fighting at the Battle of Cape St Vincent and at the

Great Siege of Gibraltar The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the War of the American Revolution. It was the largest battle in the war by number of combatants. The American war had end ...

in 1780. The following year, Mends joined the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

HMS ''Guadeloupe'' and was in action at the

Battle of Cape Henry The Battle of Cape Henry was a naval battle in the American War of Independence which took place near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay on 16 March 1781 between a British squadron led by Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot and a French fleet under Admiral ...

in March 1781 before participating in the

Siege of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

. During the fighting, ''Guadeloupe'' was destroyed and Mends wounded in the right arm and left knee. Although his leg wound healed, Mends' arm had to be amputated. He was awarded a pension of £7 a year to compensate for his lost limb.Mends, Sir Robert
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', J. K. Laughton, (subscription required), Retrieved 25 January 2009 Recovering from his wounds, Mends joined HMS ''Conqueror'' and fought at the Battle of Dominica, where he was again seriously wounded after being struck in the head by a wooden splinter. Mends remained in service at the end of the war and joined HMS ''Grampus'' in 1786, under Commodore Edward Thompson off the African coast. In 1789 he was promoted to lieutenant and spent time on the

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

HMS ''Childers'' in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

. At the outbreak of the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Ki ...

in 1793, Mends was serving on the ship of the line HMS ''Colossus'' in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and was present at the Siege of Toulon. In 1795, ''Colossus'' joined the

Channel Fleet The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915. History Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history the ...

and fought at the Battle of Groix, at which Mends was caught in a large explosion that left him very badly burned. Recovering from his injuries, Mends was promoted commander and took charge of the 16-gun brig HMS ''Diligence'' in the West Indies. In May 1800 he was made a post captain and served in a number of ships, including HMS ''Abergavenny'', HMS ''Thunderer'', HMS ''Quebec'' and HMS ''Nereide'', before the

Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it se ...

in 1802. After the outbreak of the

in 1803, Mends was made commander of the

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

sea fencibles and in 1808 given command of the frigate HMS ''Arethusa'' in the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay (), known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( es, Golfo de Vizcaya, eu, Bizkaiko Golkoa), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony (french: Golfe de Gascogne, oc, Golf de Gasconha, br, Pleg-mor Gwaskogn), ...

. In ''Arethusa'', Mends served on the blockade of the Northern Spanish ports during the

and fought at the

, in which Mends was wounded again. Between 1808 and 1811, Mends operated extensively against French held harbours and coastal shipping on the Northern Spanish coast. His operations were a serious nuisance to the French and he was consequently thanked by the Spanish

Junta Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...

and made a nominal Spanish Major General. Between 1811 and 1814, Mends was recalled to Britain and served as superintendent of the prison hulks in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

harbour. In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Mends was made a knight of the Spanish Order of Charles III, a title he was permitted to wear in British service, but which did not grant him the privileges of a British knight. The following year his pension was increased to £300 a year. In 1821, Mends became commander in chief of the West African Station in the frigate HMS ''Iphigenia'', later transferring to HMS ''Owen Glendower''. Mends died in September 1823, succumbing to fever on ''Owen Glendower'' off the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

. Lieutenant Pringle Stokes took charge of the ship. Commander

John Filmore John Filmore ( – 24 May 1839) was an officer in the British Navy who commanded the African Station for a year, responsible for suppressing the slave trade. Early years John Filmore was born around 1788. He joined the navy as a boy, enlisting ...

arrived soon after, appointed himself to command the station and transferred to the frigate '' Owen Glendower''. Mends' eldest son died three months later on the same commission at

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

. Mends had married in 1802 and had two other sons, Captain James Augustus Mends, who died in 1875 and Vice-Admiral George Clarke Mends who died in 1885. His younger brother, William Bowen Mends, also joined the Navy and died as a full admiral in 1864, while his nephew Admiral Sir

William Robert Mends Sir William Robert Mends, (27 February 1812 – 26 June 1897), was a British admiral of the Royal Navy, eldest son of Admiral William Bowen Mends and nephew of Captain Robert Mends. William Mends was born at Plymouth into a naval family. He ...

died in 1897.

Notes

References

*
Mends, Sir Robert
''

'', J. K. Laughton, (subscription required), Retrieved 25 January 2009 *

Life

Notes

References

See also