Captain Sir Henry Martin Blackwood, R. N.

  General Notes:

From The Gentleman's Magazine (1851)

Entered the navy July 22, 1814, as a third-class boy on board the Liffey 50, Capt. John Hancock, stationed in the channel; where he served until April 1815. He next, in May 1817, joined the Bulwark 74, Capt. George M'Kinldy; and afterwards officiated as midshipman, on the Cape of Good Hope, Brazilian, East India, and Home stations, of the Favourite 26, the Leander 50, bearing his father's flag, the Eden 26, the Tees 26, and the Dover. The Eden was actively employed in 1820 against the pirates of the Perisan Gulf. He was made Lieutenant November 30, 1821, and from July 6, 1822, until his promotion to the rank of Commander, December 1, 1823, he served on board the Nimrod 18, and the Active 46. He obtained command, July 26, 1826, of the Jasper sloop on the Mediterranean station, and there served until his advancement to post rank, April 28, 1827. His next appointment was on October 14, 1843, to the Fox 42, in which frigate, after being for some time employed on particular service, he sailed for the East Indies, where he discharged the duties of Commodore.

Subsequently he has commanded the Vengeance, first succeeding the Earl of Hardwicke in the Mediterranean, and then re- commissioning the ship on paying her off in July last. The reformers of the service have lost a friend in the death of Sir Henry, for he has been reported as an approver, if not an active supporter, of a revision of naval titles, and the establishment of a general mess on board ship.

The Admiralty ordered a public funeral for the late Sir Henry, which took place on Saturday the 18th January. All the troops of the garrison, and about 400 men of the 82nd, under command of Colonel Maxwell, with the three bands of the regiments of the line playing the "Dead March in Saul", followed in procession, with reversed arms. The other portion of the troops formed on each side the street from the George Hotel to the Victoria Pier, and kept a clear space for the procession to pass down. At the Victoria Pier the barge of the Vengeance received the coffin, attended by the boats of the Vengeance and other ships in harbour, with the barge of the Victory, and band of that ship, all with pendants and ensigns hoisted half mast. So soon as the body was lowered into the barge of the Vengeance, that ship commenced firing minute guns, and continued to do so till the burial ceremony ended. The boats crossed the harbour in two lines, the Victory's barge preceded, the band playing the "Dead March." The launches of the Britannia and Excellent followed, conveying the mourners and others that formed the procession. The service of the dead having been performed, and the body conveyed to the burial ground at Haslar, it was consigned to its last resting place, and the ceremony was concluded by three volleys fired by the Royal Marines. ⁵⁵³

Henry married Harriet Louisa Bulkeley, daughter of J. M. Bulkeley and Unknown, on 19 August 1826 in Marylebone, London.⁶⁹ (Harriet Louisa Bulkeley died on 6 February 1873 in 2 Oxford Square, London ¹³.)