Thomas Garth (Royal Navy)

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Captain Thomas Garth RN was a Napoleonic era British Naval Commander. Garth whose family seat was Haines Hill in Berkshire was the son of Charles Garth MP for Devizes and the government agent for South Carolina, Georgia and Maryland. He was also nephew to General Thomas Garth, Colonel of the first dragoons and Principal Equerry to George III.

[edit] Career

Garth became a naval Commander on 3rd March 1804 and was given the command of the 38 gun frigate HMS Imperieuse with which he subsequently sailed in an expedition against Antwerp. After the reduction of Flushing, Garth was engaged in various operations on the river Scheldt.

On the 16th of August 1809 whilst again in command of the Impérieuse, Garth in ascending the Scheldt after the other frigates, entered by mistake the Terneuse, instead of the Baerlandt channel, and became in consequence exposed to the fire of the Terneuse battery. In returning that fire, the frigate discharged from her carronades some Shrapnel shells; one of which, bursting near the magazine of the fort, containing 3000 barrels of powder, and a great quantity of cartridges, caused an explosion that killed 75 men. The battery fired no more, and the Impérieuse passed on.

In the spring of 1810 Garth was put under the orders of Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet who had been sent to Quiberon Bay to work with Baron De Kolli who was trying to arrange the release of Ferdinand VII of Spain who was being held at Valençay. Garth commanded the 22 gun HMS Cossack and the 32 gun HMS Cerberus and successfully captured various armed ships and merchant men in the Mediterranean.

[edit] Family

Garth married in 1820, Charlotte Maitland, daughter of General Frederick Maitland. They had two daughters one of whom, Charlotte Harriet Garth married PW Godsal of Iscoyd Park in Shropshire. Garth was grandfather of Philip Thomas Godsal the author and inventor of the Godsal anti-tank rifle. His second daughter, Selina married Mr Frederick Lewis Scrymgeour Wedderburn. His only son Mr Thomas Colleton Garth was the founder of the Garth Hunt in Berkshire.

Captain Garth died at Leamington in November 1841.

[edit] References

  • Gentlemans Magazine 1842