|
MALCOLM, SIR
CHARLES.—The family to which this naval commander belonged, was remarkable
for producing not less than four brothers, who all won their way to rank and
distinction by the greatness of their public services. Sir Charles was the
tenth and youngest son of George Malcolm, and was born at Burnfoot,
Dumfriesshire, in 1782. Being destined for the naval profession, he entered
it when only nine years old, and was so fortunate in a course of active
service that followed, as to have his brother, Pulteney, for his commander,
under whom he was master’s mate of the Fox, 32. In this ship he served in
1798, when, in company with the Sybille, 38, they entered the harbour of
Manilla under Spanish colours, made a dashing attack upon three ships of the
line and three frigates, and captured seven boats with a large quantity of.
military stores, and took 200 prisoners. Rising still in the service, he was
in course of time promoted to the command of the Narcissus, 32, and in 1807
was slightly wounded in an attack upon a convoy of thirty sail in the
Conquet Roads. In 1809 he aided in the capture of the Saintes Island in the
West Indies. In June of the same year, having been appointed to the command
of the Rhine, 38, he was employed in active co-operation with the patriots
on the north coast of Spain, a service in which several of our most
distinguished naval commanders were occupied at the same period. After this,
he was employed in the West Indies, and upon the coast of Brazil; and on the
18th of July, 1815, he landed and stormed a fort at Corigion, near Abervack.
Thus briefly are we obliged to sum up a course of service that lasted
several years, with little intermission. It was a period, however, of great
naval events, in which the public attention was regaled with such a
succession of splendid victories by sea, that it had little inclination for
the exploits of single ships, or the details of privateering. Still, an idea
of the active and important nature of Captain Malcolm’s services may be
gained from the fact, that while in command of the Narcissus and the Rhine,
he not only captured great numbers of merchantmen, but took more than twenty
privateers, carrying 168 guns and 1059 men.
On the return of peace,
Malcolm’s services were not to be dispensed with; and in 1822 he was
appointed to the command of the William and Mary, royal yacht, lying at
Dublin in attendance upon the Marquis of Wellesley, lord-lieutenant; and on
the following year, he had the honour to receive knighthood from the
vice-regal hand. In 1826 he was appointed to the command of the Royal
Charlotte yacht, also commissioned on the same service. But these, though
sufficiently honourable employments, and indicative of a due sense of his
past services, were of too quiescent a character for an active spirit still
in the prime of life; and in 1827 his best aspirations were gratified by his
being appointed superintendent of the Bombay Marine. To this service he
diligently devoted himself for ten years, and so highly improved it, that
from an imperfect sea establishment, it grew into a regular Indian navy,
adequate to the extensive wants and protection of our Eastern empire. Sir
Charles was also the promoter of many important surveys within the extensive
sphere of his command, and took an influential part in the establishment of
steam-navigation in the Red Sea. Well-merited promotion continued to follow
these exertions, for he was raised to the rank of rear-admiral in 1837, and
to that of vice-admiral in 1847.
In turning to his personal
history, it is only necessary to add, that in 1808 Sir Charles married his
cousin Magdalene, daughter of Charles Pasley, Esq., by whom he had one
daughter; and on becoming a widower, he married in 1829 Elmira Riddell,
youngest daughter of Major-General Shaw, by whom he had three
sons, two of these being now in the royal navy. In his character, he fully
abounded in that seaman-like courage, frankness, and courtesy, which
Napoleon so much admired in his brother, Sir Pulteney Malcolm. The death of
Sir Charles occurred at Brighton, on the 14th June, 1861, at the age of
sixty-nine. |
