William Henry Percy

Biography

William Henry Percy (24 March 1788 - 5 October 1855, 8 Portman Square, London, at his eldest brother's home) was aRoyal Navy officer.

Family

He was the sixth son of Algernon Percy, second Baron Lovaine of Alnwick (1750–1830) and his wife Isabella Susannah Burrell.

Life

Entering the navy as a first-class volunteer on board the 64 gun HMS Lion in May 1801 and going with it to China, he returned in November 1802 and was posted to the HMS Medusa as a midshipman. (Soon afterwards, his elder brotherJosceline was appointed its appointed acting lieutenant.) He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1807. Promoted to commander in 1810, his first command was HMS Mermaid in 1811 where he engaged in transporting troops between Britain and Iberiafor the Peninsular War).

He was made post captain on 21 March 1812, but his next command (of the 20 gun HMS Hermes during 1814-15, operating on the North American coast) came to grief when he lost 50 of his crew wounded or killed in an unsuccessful attack on Fort Bowyer, Mobile and then had to set fire to his own ship to keep her out of enemy hands. A court martial determined that the attack was warranted by the circumstances. Still, this was his last naval service, though he did carry back to Englanddespatches announcing the British defeat at the Battle of New Orleans.

For a while during his retirement he was a commissioner of excise and - thanks to the influence of his maternal aunt's stepson, the second Marquess of Exeter - Tory MP for Stamford, Lincolnshire (1818-1826). Made a rear-admiral on the retired list on 1 October 1846, he died in 1855, unmarried.