William Pryce Cumby
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| William Pryce Cumby | |
| Born | 20 March 1771 Heighington, County Durham, England |
|---|---|
| Died | 27 September 1837 (aged 66) Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales |
| Occupation | Royal Navy Officer |
Captain William Pryce Cumby, RN, CB (20 March 1771 - 27 September 1837) was an officer in the Royal Navy whose excellent service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was highlighted when he was thrust into the limelight following his service at the battle of Trafalgar. During the battle his ship, the HMS Bellerophon was ountnumbered and almost overrun, but despite mounting casualties, heavy bombardment and the death of his captain John Cooke, the then Lieutenant Cumby ably took command, leading a charge which cleared his decks of boarders and ultimately captured the enemy ship attached to his own.
Born into a naval family in 1771, Cumby followed his father [1] to sea, and was made lieutenant in the general promotions which followed the outbreak of war in 1794. He had little chance for distinction during the next eleven years, but maintained a a solid reputation for good service and efficiency which led to him being in the position of first lieutenant on the Bellerophon when she lined up in Admiral Collingwood's division on the 21 October 1805 in the opening stages of the battle of Trafalgar. Captain Cooke and his first lieutenant had an unusually close professional relationship, and Cooke made the unusual move of taking Cumby and the ship's master Edward Overton into his confidence about the ship's orders and Admiral Nelson's confidential instructions prior to the action, so that in case something should happen to him, the ship would still have able, informed direction.
Once action was joined, Bellerophon rapidly found herself sandwiched between the Spanish Monarca and the French L'Aigle, both pouring fire into the British ship of the line. Cumby advised his captain to remove his jacket because it made him a target for French snipers, but Cooke refused and sent Cumby below to direct the gunnery into the adjacent enemy. A few minutes later, hearing the rush of battle above, Cumby ran up the ladders to the deck where he met the mortally wounded Overton who informed Cumby of Cooke's death in hand to hand combat with a French boarding party. Cooke's last words had been Tell Lieutenant Cumby never to strike! Realising that he alone was in command of the ship, Cumby then withdrew his men from the poop deck and into the waist of the ship, where the threat from enemy grenades was not as high, and Cumby then ordered the guns trained on the French boarding parties, which were destroyed, allowing Cumby to board and capture the Aigle, at one point picking up a lit grenade in order to extinguish it.
Proclaimed a hero after the battle, Cumby was rewarded with promotion to Post Captain and given the HMS Polyphemus, another Trafalgar veteran. With this he performed numerous raiding operations on the coast of San Domingo during 1807, 1808 and 1809, culminating in his command of a squadron which bloackaded the city of San Domingo from sea and land. The operation was so successful that the city surrendered in short order, and Cumby was highly praised by his opponents for his gentlemanly behaviour following the surrender. Cumby spent more years at sea, but none to rival his most exciting period in the mid-1800s nevertheless, his reputation for solid service led to further rewards of command of the Royal yacht HMY Royal Sovereign, the position of superintendent of Pembroke Dockyard and being made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1831. He died in his office in Pembroke aged 66 and was buried Pembroke Dockyard graveyard. His grave site is now a car park, but a commemorative plaque recounts his prominence, as does a similar, larger plaque at his local church [2] in Heighington near Durham, where he was born.
[edit] Further reading
- The Trafalgar Captains, Colin White and the 1805 Club, Chatham Publishing, London, 2005, ISBN 1-86176-247-X
- A County Durham man at Trafalgar: Cumby of the Bellerophon, Durham Co Local History Society, 1997, ISBN 0-902958-16-X
- David Cordingly, The Billy Ruffian: The Bellerophon and the Downfall of Napoleon (Bloomsbury USA, 2003) ISBN 1-58234-468-X
